Pokemon Ranger: Lumière Diamant
by Alfa19
Summary: rated t for mild bad words in chapter 2 onwards. i have created a new character (Alfa), which is not my real name. Alfa meets up with Keith and Kellyn from pokemon ranger Shadows of Almia, the story is based in almia After dim sun event, who he used to know in ranger school. they are to work together as a team from the point they meet. story name is half-french btw.
1. The 13th Top Ranger

**Chapter 1**

**The 13th Top Ranger**

"So when's the new guy arriving?" Keith asked Barlow.

"If he's on time, then he should be here in a minute or two." Replied Barlow.

"What's taking him so long!" exclaimed Keith, "We've been waiting here for five hours!"

"More like five minutes Keith." Cut in Kellyn with a smile. He and Keith had been sent to the Vein-town ranger base to wait for another top ranger to arrive from, well, nobody knew exactly where he was coming from. All they knew was that he was their age; 16, and he had been made a top ranger around the same time as they had.

"Look up!" cried Crawford.

"Well that's a rare treat." Remarked Barlow, "You don't often see a plane in these parts, let alone a jet!"

"That's not a plane." Said Kellyn, as he activated the scope lens over his right eye. It wasn't really high tech, just a simple red lens in front of his right eye with a metal curve on one side resting on his ear holding it up, but he had built it himself. He inserted a USB into a slot above his ear, which contained data on every single Pokémon in existence as he zoomed in on the 'jet'. "That's a Latios! And there's somebody riding it!" he exclaimed. Keith gaped in disbelief at the fact that anybody could have captured a Latios, much less convinced it to let them ride it.

The Latios came as low as the roof of the ranger base as the ranger jumped of it and it began a slow descent.

"Hi I'm Alfa Hyrax, nice to meet you." Said the Latios rider.

"Wait, Alfa is that you?" exclaimed Keith, "Remember us, Kellyn and Keith? From ranger school!"

"Wait, Kellyn, Keith, when did you two become top rangers?" inquired Alfa. "Around one and a half years ago, during the Dim Sun Crisis." Replied Kellyn.

"What's with the Latios?" cut in Keith.

"Well, do you guys remember the day I came to the ranger school?"

"Yeah," replied Kellyn, "We saw a Latios watching us before it flew off."

"Well, I used to know it before I came to the ranger school. I used to live in a small town on an island in Oblivia about half an hour by boat to Southern Island, which was where this Latios lived with his sister; Latias. One day, when I was about seven, it was passing by on its daily route home after hunting for food for the two of them when it crashed in my garden because of a wing injury. Neither of my parents were at home because it was the middle of the day, so I took it into my head to help it. I went around and collected some vines from the yard and some planks from my dad's toolshed and I made a sort of a splint like we're taught to in first grade." Said Alfa.

"It managed to fly home with the splint, and a few weeks later, it came back without it, flying as well as ever. Soon after that, it started to come to my garden every evening, occasionally with Latias, to play with me. By the time I was eight and a half, it trusted me enough to communicate to me using telepathy, and on my tenth birthday, it started letting me fly on its back. When I was eleven and I left for ranger school, I told Latios that I would be back soon, but he chose to follow me all the way to school." Continued Alfa.

"So then, this is the same Latios we saw at ranger school?" asked Keith.

"Yes, and after our graduation, when I was assigned to Oblivia, Latios followed me to the ranger base and said that we should be partners, and I said yes. I had known and trusted Latios since I was seven, so why not," Replied Alfa, "and now we're a duo. You can't separate us."

"So you have a Latios as your partner. Nice!" summed up Kellyn, "Oh, by the way, this is my partner, Cranidos."

"And this is my partner Buizel." Said Keith, "The trio is back together again!"

"Well, you had better report back to the union now that you three are together, shouldn't you." Said Barlow. "Oh Lord! I forgot to tell the professor we'd reached Vein-town!" Exclaimed Keith.

"Idiot!" chuckled Kellyn as he reported by voicemail to the union about Keith's mistake and that they had met up with Alfa. "Do you have any other partners?" asked Kellyn after he finished his report.

"As a matter of fact, I have three more at my house in Oblivia; A Sceptile, a Swampert and a Blaziken." Replied Alfa as they began the journey to the union by foot, Latios, Cranidos and Buizel trailing behind them. "What about you guys?"

"I only have Buizel here, but Kellyn has a whole herd of them!" replied Keith.

"Seven, to be exact; Cranidos, Shieldon, Piplup, Chimchar, Starly, Machop and Sneazel. Recently, the union built a housing section for all extra partners. You can house your partners there too." Finished Kellyn. "That reminds me, do you have anywhere to stay?"

"No, but the Union said they would assign me quarters inside their building if I didn't." replied Alfa.

"Don't worry about that. We have an extra room in the apartment Kellyn and I bought by Altru Park, and we were looking for somebody who could stay with us and we could split the cost of living three ways, so you can just stay with us." Offered Keith. "Altru Park is on the way to the union so you can dump your stuff there on the way to the union."

"That's great, Latios, can you tell Latias to pass the message about the living area in the union to my parents so they can see Sceptile Swampert and Blaziken off? Thanks." Alfa said to Keith and Latios respectively.

After walking for another quarter of an hour, the boys reached the apartment at Altru Park and led Alfa in, calling ahead to the union to say they had to drop something off and might be a while. The apartment was a spacious place with nice lighting. There were three bedrooms with bathrooms, a lounge, and a kitchen. On their way out, Alfa saw a man in a black leotard with a purple symbol on it and a kind of laptop trying to mug a woman. It hit him all of a sudden. This was a member of the disbanded team Dim Sun, who had held on to a miniremo unit and was using it to mug people! He raced forward, his styler ready as the man released a Houndoom onto the crowd.

"Stand down!" yelled Alfa, even as his capture disc raced towards the Houndoom. Within seconds the capture was complete, and the Houdoom, coming to its senses, left the area for the Chroma Highlands to the east. Alfa raised his styler and the capture disc flew into the air as the smirk disappeared from the Dim Sun Member's mouth. Alfa brought his styler down in a graceful arc as the disc smashed through the miniremo, rendering it useless. "If you ever find another miniremo and try to use it against people again, I will personally throw you into a prison cell." Alfa calmly stated, "Understood?"

The man was too frightened to speak and nodded before he ran in the other direction, only to crash into a tree and lose consciousness.

"Impressive. I can see why you were made a Top Ranger." Said Kellyn, "Now let's get to the union and explain ourselves before Professor Hastings blows a gasket." The trio laughed at this comment and raced down the union road and through the doors. Once they reached the operation center on the third floor, they took it in turns to tell parts of the dim sun encounter.

"Very well then. Now, Alfa, you said over voicemail that there was a matter of housing, did you…" said Professor Hastings.

"Excuse me Professor." Interrupted Keith, "Forgive me for the interruption, but that problem is no longer present. Kellyn and I had a third room in our apartment, and since Alfa has known us since ranger school, he decided to live with us."

"Well that's one problem out of the way, I Understand that three of your partner Pokémon are currently on the journey overseas here from…." Professor Hastings cut himself short as a Blaziken a Sceptile and a Swampert appeared from the escalator.

"How did they find their way here without your help?" sputtered the professor.

After communicating with Latios for a bit, Alfa replied, "From what Latios is saying, my mother gave them my wallet which I had forgotten at my house, so my younger sister went with them to the docks and got them onto a Ferry for Pueltown with a map with a route marked on it in marker. Apparently the ships was going to slow for the tastes of these three, so Swampert dived overboard and pushed the ferry from behind, adding about fifty miles in speed. Then they arrived in Pueltown and they followed my sister's map here and showed the receptionist my I.D. card."

"Well, then there's nothing left to sort out. You three take the day off to catch up with each other. You're on duty starting tomorrow as a team from now on, so you should save up for a car. Wendy's gone off on vacation so you'll need to get to places fast as a team. Now then, sign off for the day." Commanded Hastings.

"Sir Yes Sir!' replied the trio as they strolled out to go back to the apartment.


	2. Re-Living The Past

**Chapter 2**

**Re-Living The Past**

The boys had been doing well so far, the increase in the total income for number 14 Altru Park-Views had really enabled them to make the apartment much nicer and now they were living well. They had switched to a bigger apartment and amusingly, they had a sports car for transport since they had been assigned to work as a team. A sapphire blue McLaren 12C Spider with a specially modified engine which could recharge their stylers. Luckily they had bought it after taking the driving tests because Keith had crashed the test car into the office.

"There's an incoming call on the landline." Yelled Kellyn as he cooked sausages for breakfast, "Somebody pick it up." Keith groaned as he fell of the couch and woke up.

"What the hell happened last night? And why is there and ice bag on the floor?" groaned Keith as he headed for the phone.

"We held a ranger party last night, and since everybody knows that Wendy and Sven are dating, you tried to capture them around midnight to force them so close that they would have to kiss, and you succeeded, but you got distracted by that and you hit yourself in between your eyes and knocked yourself out for the night." Replied Alfa as he came down the stairs from the bedroom corridor.

"Guys that was the professor. He wants us down at the union ASAP, so let's eat and scram." Relayed Keith as he placed the phone in its holder. Eating a quick breakfast, they got into their customized uniforms. Keith was wearing a top ranger uniform without a jacket, and a line of capture discs down his left leg. The only difference in Kellyn's uniform was that his jacket was black and his shirt was white. Alfa had a sapphire blue V-neck T-Shirt and black jeans with white sneaker. Half covered by his sleeves he had two long strips of cloth, the same shade as his shirt which were wrapped around his arms from above his elbows to a little bit before his shoulders. They raced down with they're stylers and got into the car, Alfa driving, Kellyn charging their stylers in turn from a dock.

"Alfa, you know, you look exactly like the leader of the sinis trio, Ice. The only difference between the two of you is that his eyes were ice-blue. Yours are sapphire blue, otherwise you could have been twins." Mentioned Kellyn.

"Well, you know what they say, we all have a twin out there." Remarked Keith.

"Keith, that's the first sensible thing you've said since the day we graduated!" exclaimed Alfa as he drifted the turn from Union road to the ramp up to the Union's parking space.

"The professor is waiting for you three on the third floor with Chairperson Erma." Said the receptionist as the boys rushed past her to the third floor.

"Boys, you're here. Good, good, now we can get started. It seems that sinis trio leader Ice has finally been spotted. Somebody supposedly saw Alfa pitching a tent after coming out of a nearby McDonalds at one of the rest stops on the highway to Snowbelle city in Kalos last night. Then they remembered that Alfa was on duty in Almia and realized whom they had spotted and sent in a report. Apparently, Ice doesn't use a miniremo anymore but is actually befriending Pokémon and doing things the right way. He was seen talking to a large bird Pokémon before it flew into the sky and caused a blizzard obscuring his tent from view. Alfa, I'm sending you to Snowbelle city alone to keep an eye on him since we need four rangers here and Wendy back from vacation as of today. You are to pack your bags and depart immediately. Since you have never been to Kalos before, you can't fly there, so drive there. I happen to know that you drive very well." Stated the professor.

"But, how do you know and judge that I drive well?" asked Alfa with a confused expression on his face.

"Well dear," began Chairperson Erma with a suppressed smile, "We have security footage of you drifting the union turning at full speed successfully every morning. Everybody else who comes to work in a car or comes for other reasons in a car, has to slow down and back up. So get going, and stay safe."

"Yes ma'am," replied Alfa as he headed for the parking lot. "See you in a couple of days' time guys."

Five hours later, Alfa was cruising along the highway on his way to Kalos, Latios following him overhead. He was soon near the McDonalds where Ice was supposedly spotted. He pulled over and went to the back to examine the tracks and marks where Ice's tent would have been. Sure enough there were four peg marks, a few pairs of Pokémon tracks and a set of human footprints leading to the edge of the snow in the direction of Snowbelle city. He activated his own S-Lens as Kellyn had officially named his scope lens model, two more of which had been made for Keith and Alfa, the lens on Alfa's being blue.

"Articuno tracks!" Alfa said to himself, "Wow, Ice must really have fixed his ways to have befriended an Articuno!" He hurried back to the car and got back on the road, talking to Latios by telepathy.

'Latios, what do you make of this." Alfa thought.

"Well, from what the Keith and Kellyn's Pokémon told me, he seems to have been a pretty messed up guy, using his arrogant manner to hide the fact that his heart wasn't into using Pokémon as slaves. Apparently he seemed to be at war with himself mentally in the last few moments of Team Dim Sun's existence." Latios replied in a thoughtful manner, "I would say he was forced to do this either out of relation to Blake hall, or lack of money and other substances required for survival, from his looks and the way he behaved though, I'm going to go with the second one."

"Well, we'll find out soon enough." Remarked Alfa as his Styler notified him of an incoming call from the union. Alfa clicked the styler's receive button and put it on speaker.

"Hello? Alfa, have you found anything?" came Rythmi and operator's voice.

"This is Alfa, and yes I've found something quite intriguing. Ice seems to have fixed his ways enough to have befriended an Articuno, which presumably created the blizzard for him. He left tracks in the snow though, and he's definitely headed to Snowbelle. I'll report back later, I've just reached the end of the highway. I'm pulling in to the toll booth now. Alfa out." Reported Alfa over the ranger network's communication system.

Half an hour later, Alfa had checked into a hotel and had parked the car and was roaming the streets with Latios when he saw himself walking across the streets, or rather, he saw Ice.

"Ice, stop, I'm not going to arrest you." Said Alfa as he ran across the streets to where Ice had stopped in his tracks. All of a sudden, a cascade of snow struck the duo from between the trees on the hill next to them and they were left unconscious on the floor.

_Alfa got up and saw himself in the mirror. He was around 7 years old. He glanced over at the calendar, it had been his birthday the day before. He glanced over at the next bed. There he was, lying down, no wait, that wasn't him, that was another boy who looked just like him. Suddenly, the other boy woke up and Alfa's point of view changed. Instead of looking out of the eyes of his seven year old form, he was looking down on the twins. They looked at each other and nodded, running out to the forest behind the house. Alfa's vision followed them. They ran out past the people sitting on the benches by the Snowbelle woods and they started looking for Zoroark claw marks in the trees. Whenever they found one, they would drop a little water on it and watch as black inky fluid streamed into a bottle they kept ready._

"_Ice, we have enough!" exclaimed Alfa, "Come over here!"_

"_Finally! We've been collecting it for weeks." Replied the young twin, Ice, as he ran over. The boys examined the full bottle for a bit , before pulling out two ink pens made of carved ice with metal nibs, which they filled with the black liquid, Zoroark's ink, which couldn't ever be erased, emptying the bottle of it. Then, turn by turn, they etched each other names on their arm in calligraphic writing for each other. Well that explained the irremovable 'Alfa' on his left forearm. _

_Soon, a little girl of about three came out and ran to the boys saying happily, who started playing with her. Sicilia, their younger sister, she was living with Alfa's parent in Oblivia, but seeing this memory, Alfa was beginning to doubt that they were his real parents. _

_The kids' parent came out and sat with the kids for a while before telling to come in for dinner, before an avalanche struck them. It was a terrible sight, the moment his parent came out, Alfa's point of view changed back to his own seven year old self's point of view. He saw the snow and ice rushing towards them, and then…. Nothing._

Alfa woke up with a shock. He realized that he had been unconscious. He processed the memory realizing that Ice was his twin brother, his last name wasn't actually Hyrax, and that his parents weren't his actual parents.

Ice had woken up two and judging by his expression, he had probably seen the same memory brought about by the sight of an avalanche in the same place. Alfa unwrapped his left arm from the sapphire cloth and raised it. Ice removed his jacket and raised his arm as well. At that moment an old woman came in followed by Latios and Articuno.

"I see you two are awake. Do you remember me?"

"Yes you're Mrs. Frostover." Replied Ice.

"I take it then that the avalanche that knocked you two out has brought back some old memories." She noted.

"Mrs. Frostover, if I may, what happened after the avalanche, I just remember waking up after that in a hospital in Oblivia with my parent saying I had fallen off of Latios with Sicilia and Latios had crashed into a wall because of a wild Pokémon and we had slight memory losses." Asked Alfa.

"After the avalanche, diggers were sent to try to recover you, but only your parents had departed from this world and Ice was missing. You and Sicilia were unconscious and were suffering from such severe amnesia that even your arm marking could not remind you of your past and you two were in such a delicate condition that the shock of losing your parents could have killed you. We out a sign about the search for someone for adopting you, and the Hyraxes were in town on vacation, and decided to adopt you two, and were instructed by the doctor never to tell you about your past. But now you have unearthed it by chance. And by chance as well, it was that I saw Blake Hall have his men carry Ice away as he stumbled upon your unconscious form that day. He adopted you Ice." Finished old Mrs. Frostover, "Oh and by the way, you met Latios here not in Oblivia, I'll write about that to you later."

"Yes, I remember being raised by Mr. Hall along with Lavana and Heath. He told us we had been adopted. He always made us keep close a locket each and never look inside it, and we never questioned him. The day after operation Brighton, I opened it and found a dark shard in it. I discarded it immediately and I dug through my drawers before I left to see if I had any fragment of the blue gems to cure my heart. Deep in my things, in a small compartment, I found this." He raised his left arm as he spoke, showing a sort of arm bracer. It was made of thin silver and there were three flat rod along the length of his arm, all three next to each other which were bound by a band of silver near his elbow, the three bands converging into a perfectly cut shard of the blue gem.

Alfa raised his own arm, where there was an identical one.

"We are brothers. Now that we know that you're innocent for sure, let's go back to the union and prove your innocence to them." Said Alfa.

"Yes, let's." answered Ice.

"Get your stuff and get Articuno and we'll go in the car." Said Alfa before he turned to the Pokémon, "You guys hear that right, we're brothers, which means you guys are to be friends now, and Ice is innocent Latios, and solet's go!"

The Next Day, At Ranger Union HQ

"So Alfa, I take it that the only reason that you're allowing Ice to roam freely about while we have this discussion is that you had a concussion in Snowbelle city and you now remember your past, and that Ice was only working for Team Dim Sun because a dark shard Blake made him keep with him at all times but now the effects have been worn out by an arm bracer identical to your with a shard of the blue gem in it?" asked Professor Hastings.

"Yes, that's pretty much the entire story. And I plan on telling Sicilia on her 14th birthday and buying a place for the three of us to live together. And apparently I didn't meet Latios in Oblivia either. Let me read Mrs. Frostover's letter about that out loud, if I may";

'_Alfa, you met Latios when you were but five years old. It was as young as you then. You found it under a net it the forest, some trappers had caught and had left it there so they could have their lunch. You removed the net and befriended Latios. It was on the same day that Ice encountered Articuno on the other side of the Forest in the same predicament. However, that Articuno was guarding a chamber which contained god knows what and had to leave Ice for that reason, but when Ice encountered it again, it's time guarding the chamber was done and it stayed with him. Oh and you might be interested to know that you and Ice were born when your parents were visiting Almia Castle, that is your birthplace.'_

"Well, we must trust in our rangers and that we do. Ice is a free citizen." Said Chairperson Erma.

"Thank you, I'll be here tomorrow for duty, Ice can stay with me, now we have a fourth room." Replied Alfa, before he left to find Ice. The Snowbelle twins were re-united, and nothing would separate them this time.


	3. Blast Fuel Is Not Cool

**Chapter 3**

**Blast Fuel Is not Cool**

Alfa woke up, wondering when their task would be complete. It had been three months since he had found out that he wasn't Alfa Hyrax, and that he had a twin brother. He and Ice had found out that Almia Castle was currently un-owned and had decided to buy and renovate Almia Castle into their home. That was, if they could find the title deeds. After three months of digging through old papers in the city hall every second night, they had only found out that its title deed was somewhere in Almia. 'That narrows it down quite a bit' Alfa thought sarcastically. He and Ice had still decided to live there after finding out through an old family journal left with Mrs. Frostover, that they hadn't been born there, but rather in Snowbelle, but they had however visited it when Alfa and Ice had been three years old.

Alfa groaned as the phone rang, expecting it to be Professor Hastings calling to inquire why the trio were late. Instead, he found an over-excited Ice speaking to him from the other end in such a rapid stream of words that he could barely make out a single word.

"Ice, slow down!" Alfa yelled down the phone, stopping the flow of words quite abruptly.

"Alfa, I've found them! The title deeds to Almia Castle! … Or rather, I've found out where they are." Repeated Ice.

"That's great news! Where exactly are they, I'll go get them on Latios." Inquired a now equally over-excited Alfa.

"It's a bit more complicated than I expected. Almia Castle's last owner left a document in the inner depths of Almia's property deed storage chamber. It says that whoever can solve the riddle and find the deeds, will own Almia Castle, the riddle isn't on that particular document but it has given the location of the riddle." Replied Ice, sounding slightly worried.

"And where might the riddle be?" asked Alfa.

"Um, it's supposed to be in the room with the blue gem in Almia Castle, but…." Ice stopped speaking.

"But what?" asked Alfa, beginning to worry that all their time and dedication was for nothing.

"Well, I already checked there, but it's not there. I asked around, and this local fisherman who had been fishing in the same spot in Almia Lake for thirty years said he had seen a man and a woman take a parchment from Almia Castle about seventeen years ago. I asked him if he could describe them over the phone to a sketch artist I had met in Fiore once, and he sent me the drawings. I referenced them in the union's data base, and well… The people who took the riddle were our parents." Answered Ice.

"What?!" exclaimed Alfa.

"Yeah, it seems that they themselves had been trying to acquire Almia Castle." Ice replied in a worried tone.

"Hey, I have an idea. Mrs. Frostover has the remaining stuff from the wreckage of our house right? Let's ask her if she found it!" suggested Alfa.

"That's brilliant! We'll both take days off tomorrow and we'll go to Kalos." Finished Ice. It was at the very moment that Alfa put the receiver down that Keith and Kellyn walked with big grins on their faces.

"What's up guys?" asked Alfa.

"Nothing really. Hastings wants us down at the union. Says we have to do some sort of extra duty." Answered Keith, his grin turning into a sour face.

"Let's go and get there before, to quote you Kellyn 'Professor Hastings blows a gasket'." Said Alfa as he grabbed the car keys as the boys flashed back to the day they met up in Vein-town. They raced downstairs and leaped into the cars, Kellyn calling shotgun before Keith remembered to, as usual. They were down at the union in a flash thanks to Alfa's high speed drifting mastery.

"We have to what?!" exclaimed Keith.

"Didn't you hear me the first time?" yelled the professor. "You have to try out for the union High rank team for football! It will consist of any union researchers capable of playing football well enough, most of the top rangers and maybe one or two top operators. Before the regional cup, there is the ranking cup. The Union puts out two teams of fifteen each. One of area rangers, and one of the staff of the union, rather the elite team. The gym leader circuit puts out four teams of eleven, and the elite four and champions of each region team up to produce two teams of fourteen. All in all, eight teams, and we must win this year!" declared the professor.

"Professor, when are the tryouts? Inquired Alfa.

"The day after tomorrow." He answered.

"Well, then I was wondering if Ice and I could have and off day tomorrow as we may have a lead on the location of the title deeds for Almia Castle, and you know that we plan to move there. By the way, if I may ask how Ice is doing as a researcher?" requested Alfa.

"Yes you may, and he is doing very well in the field of research about Ice type Pokémon. Who knew he was so enthusiastic about them!" The professor replied with a shine in his eyes. "Ice has discovered so much that we missed. Did you know that an angry Froslass releases snowflakes from its back? Kellyn, you might want to update the data on ice types in you S-Lens soon. And Alfa, I trust you will inform your brother about the tryouts."

"Yes sir, and thank you sir." Said Alfa.

"Well, this will be interesting." Said Kellyn as the trio raced along the road to the Chroma Highlands where they were supposed to test a new fuel for cars to see if it was safe to use for the public.

"Definitely." Replied Alfa, "By the way, do either of you remember the name of the company whose fuel this is? I don't want to pass a signboard saying that their labs were right there and we missed them."

"Something like Boom oil or something." Said Keith, frowning as he tried to remember the correct name.

"You're thinking of the name of their new fuel and even that's wrong. The company's name is Chroma Energy Sources, or CES. The name of the new fuel is Blast Fuel. Apparently it has a whole bunch of uses." Said Kellyn, before he started reading them of a summary he had been given.

"Number one: if your fuel is about to run out, you're in the middle of the road, and you don't have enough fuel to make it to the gas station, you can give an indicator three times then activate blast mode. Blast mode ignites the fuel in such a way that you go to a crazy speed and reach the station before you run out of fuel. Number two: Blast mode is good for racing. And number three: if somebody ever points a gun at your car and try's to hold you up. Use Blast Mode Physical. It fires a blast of sonic energy created by the combustion of fuel in blast mode at the person. To activate blast mode…. To be figured out."

"To be figured out? What's that supposed to mean?" asked Keith.

"I don't know myself." Replied Kellyn. "Oh wait, there's something here at the bottom. The test will be taken in a car that has buttons to activate BM and BMP. After that, of the test is successful, CES will make a contract with various car companies that will add a BM and a BMP switch on the dashboards of every car produced from that day onwards. Sounds reasonable."

"We're here guys." Yelled Alfa over the noise of turbines coming from the laboratory. He parked the car as they reached the building and the trio went inside.

"Welcome to CES, do you have an appointment with the director of the board?" inquired the receptionist without looking up.

"We're the test drivers sent to test Blast Fuel." Answered Keith.

"Oh follow me please." Requested the receptionist as she stood up and headed in the direction of the racing track. They were received there by a large man in a white suit striking a golf ball off a miniature green to a hole in the middle of the track.

"You must be the rangers Hastings was talking about. I hear that one of you can drift the union turning at full speed. You must be pretty dang good." He said. "The cars are this way, now which one of you is which."

"I'm Kellyn, I'll be testing it as an everyday ordinary driver. Keith is the one with the red hair, he'll be testing as the driver who's new to the streets since he failed his driving test due to anxiety." he was cut off by the director.

"So I take it you're Alfa, the expert?" inquired the director, looking pointedly at Alfa.

"Yes that would be me." Alfa replied with a smile on his face.

"Ok then, the cars are over there. Each of you get in one and wear a headset. You'll be told when it's your turn to go." Said the director, pointing in the direction of three formula one style cars with open roofs and open fenders. The boys picked a car each and buckled up as Keith was given the green light. He sped forward and activated his Blast Mode almost immediately, and lost control as the car crashed into a barrier signifying a split turning as his car exploded and he was thrown into the air, crash landing in the pool in the middle of the track.

"Not that good of a run." Stated the director. "Next."

Kellyn shot forward as he started the engine. Sensibly, activated Blast Mode after he crossed the barrier, but was struggling from control and smashed into a wall at a left turning, his ejector seat launching him into the pool.

"An okay run." Commented the director. "Next."

"Sir, I have a request before I start my run. You're taping these runs right, then put an X-ray filter on my video so we can check how the engine responds later." Said Alfa as he started his engine. As soon as he was given the green light, he shot forward, activating Blast Mode after the barrier and he too nearly lost control, he hadn't lost control completely, but he was struggling to stop the car from flipping over. He activated the X-ray mode on his S-Lens and launched his Styler disc. Keeping one hand on the wheel and his eyes on the engine, he smashed the disc through one joint connecting two vital wires, shutting the engine down and stopping the car in its tracks.

"That is one messed up fuel source!" he exclaimed as he climbed out of the car. "Let's see that tape."

"You see, right there. The way those pipes are vibrating is abnormal in a car. That means that Blast Fuel messes an engine up. But still, let's try Blast Mode Physical." Stated Alfa as they reviewed the X-ray footage of his run.

Soon Alfa was sitting in the car again, after the wires had been reconnected. He was facing a hundred kilogram barrel. He hit the button and it blasted the barrel against the wall, breaking it and dropping out weights. All of a sudden, anguished cries arose from the area where the Pokémon used in the production of Blast Fuel were kept.

"Sir, what kind of Pokémon did you use to make Blast Fuel?" asked Kellyn, his styler in his hand.

"Fifteen Houndoom, seven Electivires and a couple of dozen Magmortars." He answered. "Why?"

"Oh hell." Exclaimed Keith as the agitated Pokémon burst forth attacking.

"We're not top rangers for nothing guys, so let's do this." Yelled Kellyn. Filled with determination, the three boys captured every last Pokémon, not stopping until they had all calmed down and been released.

"Blast Fuel is not cool man." Alfa said to the director before the trio turned around and headed for the car.


	4. Almia Castle: Home Sweet Home

**Chapter 4: **

**Almia Castle: Home Sweet Home**

Alfa woke up. It was his day off to search for the riddle to the title deeds of Almia Castle with Ice. He hurried out of bed and ran to the next room in the corridor.

"Ice, wake up! We have to go back to Snowbelle city today." He yelled through the door.

"Coming!" came a muffled reply through the wooden door. Alfa raced down the stairs to find Wendy making coffee for herself at the table.

"Before you ask why I'm here at this time in the morning, let me remind you. Wheeler came out of hiding a few days back and tried to destroy the union. He only succeeded in destroying Sven and my room. You guys had acquired the next door two room apartment from the person who used to live there, so you, Keith, Kellyn and Sven attached saw blades to your capture discs, and shifted the main door of that apartment to the inside of yours, or rather now, ours." She reminded him. "You've developed a queer habit of forgetting things."

"Sorry, I've stopped trying to retain information that doesn't concern the threat of my life for the time being until I can find the deeds to Almia castle." Answered Alfa as he dug through the fridge for a bottle of water he could take with him. Ice came galloping down the stairs at that moment carrying two backpacks. He tossed one to Alfa without stopping to say anything as he ran downstairs to make sure that Latios and Articuno were awake and had eaten, as they were to make the journey by air.

"See you later Wendy, and please tell Sven that he parked in the wrong spot and he has twenty-four hours before they tow his car." Yelled Alfa as he ran down the stairs to where all the Pokémon were.

"Let's go Alfa." Exclaimed Ice. Latios opened the lounge's window wall as the boys took flight, closing it behind them as well using telekinesis. The boys were soon en route to Kalos, barely containing their excitement. They might finally have the answers to where the title deeds to what they were determined they would make their new home were.

About an hour later, they landed at old Mrs. Frostover's house. Ice knocked on the door as Mrs. Frostover looked out the window and saw the twins waiting for her. She came hurriedly to the door, a smile lighting up her face.

"My dears, please do come in, I just finished baking some cookies, please do try them." She greeted them.

"Thank you Mrs. Frostover. They smell lovely. Mrs. Frostover, we have a question. You have all the remainders of our things from the wreckage of our old house, right? We were wondering if you happened to find any journals or old papers belonging to our parents." Inquired Alfa.

"The only thing left from the wreckage was one small journal found in your father's coat pocket. It had your parents' names on it. As far as I know, it had the title deeds to your house and one or two other paper in it." She replied, her face wrinkling up into a frown as she tried to remember.

"Mrs. Frostover that may be the very thing we're looking for. We were searching for the riddle leading to the title deeds of Almia Castle, and we found out that our parents had it! Thank you so much." Cried Ice.

"Not a problem my dears. Anything for you two." She replied with a smile as she dug through her desk and removed a small brown journal with their parents' names engraved on the front. Veronique and Sevier Snowbelle.

"If I may Mrs. Frostover, the cookies were delicious. Thank you for all your trouble." said Alfa as the two boys departed for Almia to decipher the riddle comfortably in their own home.

Three hour later, the boys stood in the deepest point of Boyle Volcano. The only clue on the piece of paper containing the riddle had forced them to decipher a message in ancient texts, track down and inquire from a dumb, in the sense he couldn't speak, man about where they could find a Moltres. They found it on top of Boyle volcano, and while Alfa captured it, Ice untied from its foot a scroll which said that if they jumped into the volcano from the area where the ring of flowers around the craters edge was burnt, they would be diverted into a chute which took them here. The deepest, inaccessible by ordinary means, part of the volcano.

They had found a scroll placed in the middle of the floor there, and had decided to decipher it before they left.

"It says that we would find the title deeds in Almia Castle, with another hint tied to the peak spire of the castle." Decided Ice. "Do you agree that that makes the most sense?"

"Yes, more than any other of our conclusions. So let's get going!" replied Alfa. The boys looked at the chute which had taken to the chamber. "Well there's no way we're getting up that without a rope, and we didn't bring one."

"I know! Call Wendy and ask her to come here with a rope. Call it a quest. Latios and Articuno can haul us up." Suggested Ice. Without bothering to answer, Alfa, took out his styler and sent Wendy voice mail describing their predicament and all she needed to do, designating it as an official quest. Around half an hour later, a rope came down the chute. Alfa and Ice grabbed on and tugged twice to signify they had it. Almost immediately, they were whipped up the chute and out of the mouth of the volcano.

"Thanks Wendy, I would call that a quest clear. Tell the operators to give you a styler energy boost on my behalf will you." Said Alfa as they stood on the edge of the crater where Wendy was waiting for them.

"No problem guys, see you later." She replied as she swung herself onto her Staraptor and flew off.

Three hours later, at around five in the evening, the boys were examining the structure of Almia Castle from the air. It was quite a tight curve to the top by air and it was impossible to climb to the top spire. It was only difficult to fly there because of all the other spires surrounding the main spire. It was definitely something Articuno couldn't pull off because of its huge wingspan.

"So I'll be flying around underneath you in case it falls, okay." Said Ice.

"OK, let's do this, for our family!" finished Alfa. He took flight from the ground in front of the castle where they had stopped to discuss their approach, Ice trailing behind him. He shot up between the first few spires to a tricky curve, barely making it to the top and grabbing the scroll.

"Let's get down and inside before we read it." Yelled Ice over the headwinds.

"Clear!" replied Alfa as he began circling down to the main doors. Five minutes later the two boys were standing inside, untying the scroll.

"This one's not a riddle, it's a straightforward location. I'll read it out; before I abandoned and froze over this castle (yes I purposely froze it over) after my father's death, I placed the title deeds on the throne. Go look there. They should be perfectly preserved."

"Well at least that was simple." Remarked Alfa. The boys tied the scroll up again and headed for the throne room.

Later, in the throne room.

"What the hell! Why the hell aren't the deeds here!" exclaimed Alfa.

"Wait a second. The ice in the center of the throne, where the papers should have been frozen, is ice from a Froslass." Pointed out Ice.

"So?" asked Alfa. "What does that have to do with any of this?"

"The ice around the rest of the throne, and all the ice that covers the castle is from a Kyurem. My guess is that somebody already found the deeds, melted a hole, took them and replaced the hole." Finished Ice.

"Then, you're saying that our parents managed to get the deeds?" said Alfa.

"That is the only conclusion that makes sense. Let's get out of here and look in the journal again." Replied Ice. With that the two boys turned heel and left the castle for the time being.

Two hours later, the boys were in the apartment banging their heads against the walls out of frustration. Wendy and Sven came in and saw them, wondering what had happened.

"What the hell are you two doing?" exclaimed Sven.

"The deeds are already taken." Began Ice

"By our parents." Continued Alfa.

"And we checked their journal which contained all their paper." Went on Ice

"And the only thing were the title deeds to our old house. Take a look." Finished Alfa, tossing the journal to Wendy. The two of them opened the journal and took out the only papers.

"Alfa, Ice, the title deeds to any plot of land are four pages. This bundle is eight." Said Sven as he tossed the journal back to Alfa.

"Wait, so you're saying that the deeds are in here?!" inquired Alfa.

"Sure as hell I am! Now open the thing and look for yourself." Replied Sven. Filled with a new energy, Alfa and Ice separated the paper, which were bound in two bundles off four. Sure enough, the title deeds to Almia Castle were in the back.

"WE HAVE THEM!" exclaimed the twins at the same time. "WE FINALLY HAVE THEM!" Wendy walked up from behind the two and hit them both on the back of their heads with a ladling spoon.

"What the hell was that for?" exclaimed Ice.

"Shut up and go to bed. You two are drained out from finding those papers and the mandatory tryouts for the football team are tomorrow. So just go to bed." She replied, brandishing the spoon. "Or do you want me to knock you out?" hearing this remark, the twins fled to their respective rooms.


	5. Mrs Serenston?

**Chapter 5**

**Mrs. Serenston?**

Alfa woke up and raced down the stairs, chuckling as he remembered Wendy's threat of knocking him and Ice out with a spoon the night before. It was good to have a woman in the apartment to keep the boys' idiocy in check. Ice was already downstairs at the table with Kellyn and Sven. Keith was still asleep and Wendy was making breakfast for everybody. They had all been told to report at nine o'clock sharp. He glanced at the clock. Eight o'clock. Why wasn't Keith up yet? As if he had read his mind, Ice started speaking.

"Sven, Kellyn and I wanted to have a bit of fun with Keith this morning, so last night Kellyn snuck into his room and turned the alarm off. There's an overhead ventilation shaft in that's in every room. And all the beds are under them to keep us cool. So we thought one of us could creep through the shaft with a bucket of ice cold water, and douse him awake."

"I'll do it." Volunteered Alfa. Sven got up and filled a bucket with cold water from the sink and sealed it shut with a lid while Kellyn pulled up a map he'd gotten from the superintendent.

"Okay, the three of us will hoist you up from the vent in your room, and you'll turn end up at a three way parting, use the central path and you should wind up above Keith's room. After that, we'll come back down and you'll have to drop down on your bed so that you can pretend you were in your room all along. Clear? Oh and by the way, I'm designating this as a quest, so we'll get the operators to give you something when we leave. But eat breakfast first. We shaft you at eight thirty." Instructed Kellyn.

Half an hour later, the four boys were standing in Alfa's room, hoisting him up into the vent. The second he was in with the bucket, they left the room and shut the door. Alfa started crawling and reached an air vent. Looking down, he saw the sleeping form of Keith in front of him. Kellyn was also in the room, resetting the alarm to make it look like he had slept through it. He gave Alfa a thumbs up and a grin as he quietly left the room, shutting the door right behind him. Alfa suppressed a smile as he unlidded the bucket, and dropped the water. The second the deed was done, he scuttled back to his own room and dropped down, closing the shaft and running to the table.

He shoved the bucket into a cabinet as he sat down quickly to make sure there was nothing suspicious before Keith arrived.

"Quest Clear." Kellyn muttered in his ear. Five seconds later Keith came down and Alfa realized just how much water was in that bucket. He was in his pajamas, soaking wet, water dripping from his hair, a bewildered expression on his face.

The pipes are leaking. Tell the super." He said as he turned around to go to his room and change.

As soon as he was gone, the whole table burst out into laughter.

About an hour later, the six of them were standing in line in the unions training center where rangers usually practiced capturing. Today however, it had been converted into a football field.

"Let me explain the difference between Pokémon football and regular football." Began Professor Hastings. "I'm sure you've all played a game of football in your child hood. The rules are the same. The only changes are somewhat major. The first half played by humans. The second half played by their Pokémon. There are some rules such as machamp only being allowed to play in positions other than keeper. Pokémon may use moves but only moves that require physical contact."

"You will be divided into two teams for the time being. Blue and red. Captains, are well, nobody yet. I will decide the teams for you." Said Chairperson Erma. "Let's start with Alfa; blue. Nage; red. Murph; red. Kellyn; Blue. Keith; red. Ice; Blue. Lunick; red. Solana; red. Sven; blue. Marcus; red. Wendy; blue. Spenser; blue. Joel; red. Ben; blue. Rythmi; blue. Summer; red. This match will be half an hour, eight versus eight. The next half hour will be for your Pokémon. Pick your own captains now."

The two teams separated from each other and began to discuss.

"Cast your votes on who should be captain." Stated Sven.

"You." Replied almost everybody.

"Okay then. Whose good at what?" asked Sven.

Fifteen minutes later, they were all in position. Ice was in the goal. Spencer, Ben and Rythmi were on defense, Wendy and Kellyn were in midfield, and Sven and Alfa were on attack.

The game began with the red side kicking off. They had Joel in the goal, which meant that either the guy in glasses was good or their team had made an idiotic decision. They stuck hard at the core of the blue defense, but then Murph got the ball and decided to give it to Nage. Nage tripped over the pass and allowed Wendy to steal the ball. She carried it far into the red side, Kellyn running all around her, safeguarding the ball. She managed to get into the penalty area and passed it to Alfa, who managed to get past the guards, several of them tripping themselves up in the process of defending, and kicked it to Sven who headed it into the goal.

The score was 1-0 to the blue team. All of a sudden, Joel threw the ball into the air and let Lunick jump up and get it, piercing through the midfielders. He passed it to Solana who slipped it past Rythmi, and then she passed it back to Lunick who was practically at the goal. It was a high kick, but Lunick received it, kicking it into the goal from the air with his right leg. But before he could celebrate, Ice's hand stopped the ball dead in its tracks. He had taken a dive to his right, where Lunick had kicked the ball, his knee pushing Lunick out of the goal and his hand catching the ball.

He tossed it out into midfield as Kellyn took up the pace. He ran forward with the ball Wendy trailing behind him. He passed it to Sven who was hoping for another goal but Joel stopped the ball and tossed it back out to midfield where Summer and Keith took it as far as the goal before Solana tried to score again. Ice stopped the ball with a magnificent save and threw it the whole distance of the field, save a few meters, to Wendy who immediately shot it at the goal. Joel barely saved that shot and had just thrown it to Murph, but Alfa jumped in front of him, stopping the ball with his chest and kicking it straight past Joel, bringing the score to 2-0 to the blue team as the first half ended.

The players complimented each other's performances and attempted to decide which Pokémon would go where in the second half. It was settled that Blaziken, Cranidos and Sceptile would led the attack. Feraligator, pichu, Articuno and Fearow would take the midfield since they were all quick. Latios would be in the goal, Swampert, machop and Luxray would be on defense.

The opposing side had Dodrio in the goal, with Slowpoke, Croagunk, Oddish and Crawdaunt on defense. Attack would be played by Staraptor, Infernape and Meganium. Midfield would be covered by Buizel, plusle and minum.

The blue team kicked off since they had scored the last goal, the scores would stay the same and the red team would have to play hard to try and win. Articuno took the ball into the air and blasted it through plusle and minum to Cranidos. Cranidos immediately took it forward and tried to head-butt the ball into the goal, but Dodrio stopped it with one foot and its beak extended towards Cranidos. Using its three heads, Dodrio juggled and hit the ball into midfield to Buizel, who managed to bring it forward to Infernape.

Infernape took a shot at the goal which was reflected by Latios's right hand and shot right back in by Meganium's pound. Latios dove to the left to stop the ball with a header but Infernape recovered it and shot it in with a mega kick while Latios was still getting up.

Greatly agitated, Latios did some shouting to the other Pokémon and tossed the ball out to Fearow who took it all the way to Sceptile, who attempted to shoot it in but was denied access by Crawdaunt. Blaziken retaliated with a Blaze kick, which Dodrio's left head rolled up its beak, and it's central head hit it out, but Sceptile caught the ball on its chest, rolled it up to its head, and sent it skywards from where Blaziken shot it past Dodrio with a miraculous sky-uppercut using its leg. The whistle blew for time and the match was over.

"You will be told which players and which Pokémon made the team tomorrow. Now, you will resume your regular daily activities." Instructed Professor Hastings.

Alfa and Ice headed to their respective floors. At the top floor where rangers where examining the missions and designating them.

"Good game." Said Lunick, as he boarded a Staraptor and headed out with Solana and Spenser trailing slightly behind him.

"No missions for you today boys." Said Rythmi as she took her seat at the operators' desk ad looked at all crisis reports. "You may as well go home for now, if the professor will allow it."

"Does it matter if we have his consent or not? Chairperson Erma is the one who dismisses us." Replied Kellyn.

"That is true dear." Said Chairperson Erma herself, as she came up from behind them. "And you may leave. The results for the tryouts will be on the board tomorrow." She said.

The next day, at around eleven in the morning there was a scramble to see whose name was on the board for the team. The digital display read out:

Player Position

Alfa Snowbelle Forward

Ben Oblivic Defender

Ice Snowbelle Keeper

Keith Windbone Midfielder

Kellyn Alaric Forward

Lunick Breakstone Forward

Marcus Person Defender

Murph Henstinst Reserve

Solana Hester Midfielder

Summer Livineb Defender

Sven Serenston Forward

Wendy Brendonson Midfielder

Pokémon

Latios Keeper

Swampert Defender

Infernape Defender

Luxray Defender

Feraligator Midfielder

Meganium Midfielder

Articuno Midfielder

Buizel Midfielder

Blaziken Forward

Cranidos Forward

Sceptile Forward

Next to each name in the human category, there was a lock symbol. Alfa guessed that it was covering the little C that would indicate who was captain. 'Probably Sven.' He thought to himself.

"Everybody upstairs for the captain announcement." Ordered the professor. Everybody rushed upstairs regardless of whether they were in the team or not. The moment they were in line, the professor keyed in a passcode which removed the lock symbols. Alfa was looking at Sven's name. There was nothing next to it. Slowly he moved up the list until he was stopped dead in his tracks. The symbol was next to his name.

"Congratulations, Alfa!" exclaimed Chairperson. Alfa looked around. Sven himself was missing from the line. All of a sudden, Wendy stepped forward.

"Professor, you've gotten my last name wrong. May I correct it?" she requested.

"That's what it says in our record, but of course."

"You might want update the records then." Said Wendy as she walked up to the console and keyed in her name again; Wendy Serenston.

Immediately after this, she opened the glass roof with a command as Sven flew over it, dropping envelopes from a Staraptor. Alfa picked up one addressed to him and read it;

_Alfa Snowbelle, _

_We expect your company at our wedding. I already changed my name, so be there. The wedding is one week from now, on the 15__th__ of July. The reception begins at twelve. _

_Sven and Wendy Serenston. _


	6. I do

**Chapter 6**

"**I Do"**

Alfa stood in front of Almia Castle. The crew hired to renovate, clean up and melt the ice cover on the place was really working hard. The ice cover on the outside of the castle walls had been removed and Magmortars' embers, which never burned out, had been placed in various locations inside every wall of the place to keep it warm and prevent a snow cover from settling on it. The main pathway had been cleared and the torch posts on its sides were lit. The snow in what was the palace garden had been removed and Magmortars' embers had been buried in the ground so people could take walks there, and Sicilia could play there if she wanted to.

He was visiting for two purposes. The first was to check on the progress of the crew, and the second was to collect any shards of the blue gem they had found to make Sicilia a jewelry set from them for her fourteenth birthday. He had already spoken to his foster parents, telling them that he had found out the truth and his brother, and thanking them for taking such good care of him and Sicilia for all those years. He had also told them what he had planned to do. Tell Sicilia the truth on her fourteenth birthday and offer for her to move in with the twins in Almia castle after her birthday.

He walked through the main hall. It had also been cleaned up. The Pokémon were still there but it wasn't frozen anymore. The embers were slowly doing their work. Alfa walked a little further and found the head of the crew supervising the reconstruction of the floor in one area.

"Hello Mr. Snowbelle. How are you? The work is progressing rapidly as is this floor." He greeted Alfa.

"I'm fine Mr. Stevenson and I'm glad to hear about the progress. Have you done what I said?" inquired Alfa.

"Yes we have sir. Here are the shards we've found so far and here's the list." Replied Stevenson as he handed Alfa a brown bag and a clipboard with a list and a pen on it. "Just check off the ones you want gone." He said. Alfa had requested that they make a list of all the Pokémon except lucario found in the castle so he could have the ones that Sicilia would be scared off or the ones she didn't like sent to their natural habitats.

"Leave the vulpixes, the Ninetailses and the riolus." Said Alfa.

"Yes sir." Replied Stevenson.

"Will the castle be habitable before the nineteenth of July?" asked Alfa.

"Yes sir, it will, we will make sure of that. Good day sir." Answered Stevenson

"Thank you, and keep up the good work. I might give you a raise." Said Alfa as he turned around to leave. He opened the bag and looked inside. There was around fifty thousand Almian dollars in there in worth. Alfa checked his styler's voicemail inbox. There was one message from Kellyn; Hi Alfa. Was at Hippowdon Temple for mission. Picked up some yellow shards for you. Guess what. I'm Sven's best man! The bachelor party's at our place. The girls will be out for the night.

Alfa smiled as he read the message. Perfect. Now he could get Sicilia something that wasn't blue. He met Latios who was waiting outside the castle with his bag.

'Found any good shards?' Latios asked.

'Take a look for yourself.' Replied Alfa as he tossed the bag to Latios.

'Good haul, let's get going, we should drop these off at Mrs. Winter's house before we go.' Suggested Latios. So the two of them stopped by old Mrs. Winter's house, whom Alfa was paying a great deal to make a load of jewelry for Sicilia. He asked her to make one necklace in a different size as his wedding gift to Wendy and Sven, and he also asked her to keep some frames ready for other gems and one ready to hold all three colored gems.

After stopping there, the two of them flew straight to Boyle Volcano. Alfa expected that they would find shards of the red gem there, so they went inside the volcano from the right side entrance. He looked around as he entered. Nothing much had changed here. He forge forward following the directions Kellyn had given him from when Kellyn himself had come to get the red gem. He soon arrived at the chamber where the red gem had used to be. Heatran was there but it was just lounging about aimlessly since there was no red gem to guard. Alfa started looking around the floor and soon had quite a few red shards as well.

He set off in the direction of the exit to find himself face to face with an Aggron.

"AGGGRONNNNNNN!" roared the aggron, splattering Alfa's face with saliva.

"BE QUIET!" Alfa yelled back.

"AGGGGROONNNNNNN!" it roared again. In reply to this Latios roared at aggron. Alfa sighed and launched his capture disk, deciding to capture the freakin thing and just get it over with. While Aggron and Latios were locked in a yelling contest, Alfa was capturing the aggron. Latios saw the capture disc return to its place in the styler and decided not to yell again.

The aggron had stopped yelling and was looking at Alfa with its head tilted to one side.

'What does it want?' Alfa asked Latios.

'Gimme a second.' Replied Latios as he shifted his focus to Aggron.

'He wants to know now if he can join as a partner.'

'Ok. We'll go back home via pueltown's ferry.' Answered Alfa. Latios relayed the message to Aggron and established a mental link between Alfa and Aggron as he had done with Alfa's other three partners. It wasn't as strong as the link between Alfa and Latios themselves, but then again, they had known each other longer than they could remember, literally, and Latios was also a psychic type.

"What in the name of hell!" exclaimed Captain Puel as he saw Alfa and Latios approaching with Aggron.

"We need a ride back to pueltown captain. All three of us." Requested Alfa.

"Well alright then, but you're going to have to be careful not to upset the balance of the boat." Answered the captain.

"Then let's get going." Said Alfa. Around an hour later, they were standing in the Pueltown harbor thanking the captain as they departed. They set off through Pueltown and crossed the Norward Bridge where they separated.

'Aggron, follow Latios to the union, where you'll be staying. Latios, you heard that, meet me back here as soon as you're done.' Said Alfa as they parted at Altru Park. He climbed the stairs to their floor and opened the apartment door to find Keith unconscious on the couch with an ice bag on his head and Wendy standing over him.

"He tried to change a light bulb." Wendy informed him.

"Real amusing. If it hasn't been done yet, I'll do it." Said Alfa with a chuckle.

"Go ahead." She replied. So Alfa climbed the ladder in the middle of the room and changed the light bulb. He wondered how this could have knocked Keith out. He guessed that he had slipped. Once he was back on the ground and had stowed the ladder away in the storage compartment Wendy started speaking.

"Your little sister's birthday is in two days, the twelfth of July right?"

"Yes." Replied Alfa.

"So you'll tell her the truth then and she'll be able to be around Ice. So I was wondering, once you've told her the truth, could you ask her to be my one of my two maids of honor. You know, the ones who carry the train from behind me. I've met her once when I was stopping a fire at her school. She knows who I am. The problem is, I only have one sister and the train is kind of long." Wendy requested

"No problem. My guess is that she'd love to." answered Alfa. A few minutes later, Kellyn walked in tailed by Latios and tossed Alfa a bag full of yellow shards.

"Thanks man. Said Alfa.

"No problem." Replied Kellyn. "But what happened to him?" and so Wendy related to Kellyn the whole incident again.

"You know something. That happened to him when we moved into the first apartment. He looked just like that." Kellyn remarked as Keith woke up, groaning.

"You'd better get going if you want to reach Hia Valley and back before sunset." Remarked Wendy. "Dinner's at eight so don't be late." Alfa grabbed the bags of red and yellow shards and set of for Hia Valley on Latios's back. He reached Mrs. Winter's house in no time at all and dropped off the bags of red and yellow shards before setting off for home. He landed through the window to find everybody at the table waiting for him. He stepped off Latios and walked to the counter-table and sat on one of the chairs when the bell rang.

"Pizza delivery for Mr. Keith can't change a light bulb." Came a voice through the intercom.

"Is this some kind of a joke?" asked Alfa as he sat down.

"Nope. I just gave that name when I ordered the pizza." Chuckled Kellyn as he walked to the door.

"Which one of you is Mr. Keith can't change a light bulb?" asked the pizza guy.

"The red head." Answered Kellyn as he relieved the pizza guy of three large pizzas and two bottle of cola.

"Sign here please Mr. Bulb." Said the pizza guy.

Keith got up with a frustrated expression on his face and signed the clipboard before the pizza guy left. Ice, Sven, Wendy and Alfa were laughing their heads of as Keith came back to the table.

"Smooth move Kellyn." Snapped Keith. But even he couldn't stay mad for long and soon saw the funny side of it. The six of them had a good time, sitting down at the table as friends and not as co-workers for once. The pizzas were delicious, as expected of Marnier, the head chef at Marnier's Pizza. Jokes were told, comment made on their work and the professor was given a very interesting nickname; 'The Professore.' Before everybody went to bed, a toast was made to Wendy and Sven.

The next day, Alfa woke up and went downstairs to get some breakfast and he saw a notice lying on the floor in front of the door. He picked it up and read it; THERE'S A GIGANTIC PARCEL OUTSIDE YOUR DOOR, TOO BIG TO GET INSIDE THE APARTMENT THROUGH THE MAIL FLAP. IT'S LIKE, HALF A FOOT SMALLER THAN YOUR DOOR! FROM, SUPERINTENDENT JAMES HOWSLEY.

Alfa opened the door and indeed the parcel outside was nearly as big as the door itself. He heaved it inside, tired out by the time he reached the lounge. He wondered what the hell was inside that was so big and heavy. He saw a label on one side and checked it; FROM, MRS. WINTER, LOG CABIN, HIA VALLEY. TO, ALFA SNOWBELLE, 14 ALTRU HEIGHTS, ALTRU PARK.

Realizing what was inside, he woke Ice up, and together the two of them hefted it to Alfa's room. They opened the paper and found a box that was just as big inside. Alfa opened the box from the top, having to stand on his bed to look inside, and saw dozens of jewelry boxes, the topmost of which was conveniently labeled 'WEDDING GIFT'. He closed the lid and climbed down from his bed. Together, the twins made their way downstairs.

The particular day passed very quickly and soon it was Sicilia's birthday. Alfa and Ice had on the previous day, taken the car to Hia Valley the long way and had shipped the box across on a raft pulled by Swampert. Latios had fired at all the chunks of Ice and Sceptile would grow a barrier around each whirlpool which Blaziken later burned down. Once on the other side, Aggron had carried the box up to Sicilia's room, which had been completed and the boys had set it all up in the jewelry display case, save for the multi colored necklace, which they would give to her at the house.

Alfa and Ice had landed at the Hyrax house while Sicilia was playing with her friends at the park. They had told the hyrax's that they would go and get her since it was nearly lunch time. The two of them set of along the path from the house to the park. The weather in Oblivia was nice at that time of the year. The soon reached the park and Ice began to walk behind Alfa, and since they looked alike, nobody looking at Alfa from the front could tell that there was someone behind him. He saw Sicilia in the park playing catch and Ice came out from behind him and Sicilia turned and saw them.

"Alfa!" she exclaimed. But her joy was short lived as a fastball came and struck her on the head, knocking her out as she fell on the path.

"We'll take her back." Said Alfa to her friends.

Half an hour later, Sicilia woke up in the house. Sitting in front of her were two Alfas.

"Sicilia, happy birthday!" said the two boys in unison.

"Ice? Alfa?" she started to speak.

"Sicilia, before you say anything, did you have a dream that we were in a distant city with different parents, and you had two brothers instead of one, and you were around three." Asked Alfa.

"Yes, and there was an avalanche too." She replied.

"That was our past. Mr. and Mrs. Hyrax aren't our parents." And so Ice began to tell the tale of their past, and Sicilia took it well for one.

"So we want to ask you, if you want to, you can move in with us at Almia castle on the nineteenth. You'll go to the same boarding school though, we'll drop you off every term." Said Alfa.

"Yes, I'd like that. But for now, let's go down and have lunch." Answered Sicilia. At the table, the boys told the Hyrax's what had happened and that Sicilia wanted to move in with them.

"That's okay with us. But how about we give you our presents for now." Suggested Mr. Hyrax. Soon they were all sitting in the lounge with a plate of cookies and Sicilia was opening her last present, the necklace.

"It's beautiful! Thank you so much." She said as she got up and hugged the twins.

"Oh, I almost forgot! We have a present for you from Wendy, the top ranger who saved your school." Mentioned Alfa.

"Really! What is it?" asked Sicilia.

"Well, she's getting married to Sven in three days and she wants you to be one of her maids of honor." Said Ice.

"That's awesome." Exclaimed Sicilia.

"You can come with us tomorrow and stay until we move, so you'd better pack your things. We don't need to pack the big things like desks, chairs, or the bed, your room is already furnished, but we'll have to pack all the other things today." Said Alfa. "We'll come back in our car to pick you up tomorrow. Bye."

When the boys reached their apartment, they were surprised to find the others waiting in the apartment with a celebration dinner for them. Kellyn tossed the duo two pairs of car keys.

"Each of you gets a Mercedes-Benz SLK AMG convertible from us, and it really converts, you can also drive them underwater to cross Almia Lake." Said Kellyn as he tossed the keys over.

"Guys, this is amazing, thank you so much!" said Alfa. And so they had a very good time that night.

Three days later, at the wedding.

Sven was standing at the altar in Altru Park, and all the guests were seated. All of a sudden, music started playing as Wendy started to walk down the aisle, dressed in a pure white dress, wearing the necklace the twins had given her. Sicilia and Lily were behind her carrying the train. The moment she was on the altar, the ceremony began.

"Do you, Sven Serenston, vow to take this woman, who already changed her name to match yours out of true love, as your wife and care and provide for her for the rest of your natural life." Asked the minister.

"I do." Said Sven.

"And do you, Wendy Serenston, accept Sven's request for your hand in marriage." He asked Wendy.

"I do."


	7. Phantom Fury

**Chapter 7**

**Phantom Fury**

Alfa looked up. It was sunny day, though that didn't make much of a difference to the overall climate of Hia Valley. Inside the boundaries of Almia Castle's grounds though, the weather was slightly warm, with the cool breeze of Hia Valley making the overall climate pleasant. Alfa smiled to himself as he got up and went to Ice's room, to find his twin fast asleep.

Alfa walked out into the main corridor and turned into Sicilia's room. She was starting to wake up. He left the room in a pleasant mood before she woke up. He set off through the castle corridors, finding some of the Pokémon that were still in the castle. The Throne Room of Almia Castle, where Lucario had previously resided with the blue gem, had also had the ice melted from it, but was otherwise untouched. It would have been sacrilegious to use the throne room for any other purpose.

He went further down to the ground floor. The main dining and entrance halls were in good shape. He examined the floor. It had been defrosted as well and it was amazing how intricate the patterns on the floor really were when they were defrosted and polished. He turned around and headed back to his room, picking up his styler to check for voicemail. There were about twenty messages on it from Kellyn, Keith, Wendy, Sven, and 'The Professore' as Professor Hastings had infamously been nicknamed among rangers. Alfa had re-registered him in his styler as exactly that. Most of them were inquiries about how the move had gone, and Alfa had sent them all a simple reply; see you at work today.

The one that wasn't about the move was from the professor, reminding him about the first match of the season the day after tomorrow. It was them versus Brotherhood, one of the gym circuit teams. They had decided to name their team… well, they hadn't exactly named it yet, so in the lineup, they showed up as RU-T1. He glanced at the clock, seeing the words seven thirty displayed in blue light. He had an hour and a half to get to the union. He went to his room and got ready before grabbing his Styler and heading to the table. He found Ice at the table holding up a small display screen.

"It's called the sleep-seeker," began Ice, "You pass it over someone's face and it tells you how long they've been asleep for and how long they'll continue to sleep for unless they're woken up."

"Ok, but what's your point?" asked Alfa.

"Sicilia." Stated Ice simply, as he slid the Sleep-Seeker across the table for Alfa to look at. He read the display.

She would continue to sleep for another five hours.

"Perfect." Replied Alfa. "Lunch break's at twelve thirty, and it takes half an hour to get home. We can be back to have lunch with her before taking her where she wants to go." He finished his breakfast, and headed out to find Latios before he left, he needed Latios after all. He found Latios roaming around over the lake and waved.

Seeing Alfa, Latios changed course and headed for the castle.

'Nice flight?' inquired Alfa

'Yes, the air here is nice for flying in. I was target practicing with the ice chunks that form overnight in the lake. The way across is clear now. You won't have to use the Mercedes Beam today.' Replied Latios. Mercedes had recently created a new feature in their cars. For safety reasons, there was now an energy beam equipped in each model. The car had a nitrate cycle which would create a beam of energy to be fired out the Mercedes symbol on the front of the car, below the hood, in the shape of the Mercedes logo. It was far more successful than CES's Blast Fuel. Alfa hadn't forgotten that fiasco.

Ice came out, with Articuno behind him. He had left a note on the inside of Sicilia's door saying that they were at work, and they would be back half an hour after she read the note for lunch. The duo got into their respective cars. Alfa's was sapphire blue and ice's was ice grey. Alfa drove of the edge of the driveway, straight into the water as he hit the aqua mode button. The car converted itself into a submergible underwater travel vessel as he crossed the lake, Ice overtaking him from underneath.

He pulled up onto the Ice in a minute at the other end of the lake and headed around Ice's car, overtaking him on the land wing of the journey. He throttled the car till he was at the entrance to the cave where the river that would take them to the union began. He slowed down inside the cave and maneuvered the car into the water as Ice caught up with him and did the same. Soon they were out of the cave, so Alfa ascended and pressed the button with a picture of a river on it. The car ascended so that the doors were above the water and the roof retracted.

It was a scenic route, something he had never had time to admire on a floatzel. He pulled the car up to the dock in front of the union turning and pulled the car onto land driving into the union's parking lot. Alfa got out of the car and looked at the number plate. ASB 262. Alfa Snowbelle. Just like Keith to think of something like that. He glanced across the lot to where a volcano red McLaren 12C Spider was parked. This was interesting, they had had the car painted red.

He turned around to see Ice parking. The two of them went up the steps to the training center together, which was to be used as a football field until the end of their run in the tournament.

"Ah, you're here." Said the professor. "Good, we can begin now. Our first order of business is to name the team before we practice. Any suggestions, or rather, ideas?" Alfa glanced around. The only person missing from the line was Murph.

"Maybe, um… wait, um….. Wreckers!" said Keith.

"No way in hell!" replied Sven.

"I think that Alfa should be the one to decide on the team's name, seeing as he is the captain." Said the professor.

"A fine idea indeed." Replied Chairperson Erma. "Any ideas Alfa dear?"

"Well, I think, since nobody actually considers the ranger's teams to be very good in general, but since we've put together what I believe is an amazing, and truly likely to be victorious team, I think that Phantom Fury would be a perfect name. We have come to take the trophy, with a fury driving us, a fury that no one see's. A phantom fury." Stated Alfa

"A fitting name for the team that'll win this year." Remarked Lunick.

"Yeah, it just sticks." Said Wendy.

"Onto our next order of business is to examine our first opponents. Brotherhood is a team of gym leaders from Kanto and Johto, seeing as those two are joint, or rather brother regions. Let's pull up their team on the wall monitor please.

Brotherhood

Blue Oak, 20, Forward, Captain | Scizor

Brock Orton, 24, Defense | Golem

Mortimer Cabot, 28, Midfield | Gengar

Brendon Surge, 30, Forward | Electabuzz

Koga Brinson, 40, Defense | Crobat

Janine Brinson, 18, Midfield | Crobat

Falkner Wind-walker, 24, Forward | Pidgeot

Chuck Norris, 35, Keeper | Metagross

Jasmine Wilson, 24, Defense | Hitmonlee

Misty Maven, 20, Defense | Wartortle

Sabrina Wilber, 29, Midfield | Alakazam

"A tough team indeed, including the runner up for the indigo plateau Pokémon league." Said Professor Hastings.

"Excuse me, professor." Rythmi came running in. "There's a transmission from the Football Federation. It says that Brotherhood will not be our first opponents, but rather another team, Gemstone, will. The official matchboard is being updated as we speak.

"Let's not waste any time then. Pull up the file on Gemstone." Ordered the Professor.

Gemstone

Norman Winston, 37, Defense, Captain | Slaking

Wallace Bleu, 30, Midfield | Golduck

Brawly Ammonite, 22, Keeper | Hariyama

Candice Mayfield, 22, Defense |Abomasnow

Tate Physic, 12, Forward | Medicham

Liza Physic, 12 Defense |Medicham

Maylene Benson, 25, Forward | Lucario

Roark Stone, 25, Midfield | Rampardos

Byron Stone, 41, Defense | Bastiodon

Brent Wake, 36, Midfield | Floatzel

Volkner Brave, 22, Forward | Electivire

"Another well put together team, but not as worrying as brotherhood. Hopefully, we won't have to face Brotherhood for a while. Now then, head to the place marked with your name, and do what the screen says. Each program addresses you weaknesses until they surpass you strengths, then evens you out." Said the professor. "Your measurements will be taken and uniforms sent our tonight. Chop chop."

Alfa headed over to the dividing part where his name was written, wondering what had been observed as his weaknesses. He saw a canon attached to the wall. He wondered why it was there. He wasn't the keeper. RECEIVING A PASS, read the label. All of a sudden the canon moved to the left and fired. Alfa realized what he was supposed to do too late and missed the approaching ball. The canon swiveled to the right this time and fired a shot that was head height for him. He dove that way and headed the ball away.

To his surprise, the canon reformed itself into a curved barrel before firing again and Alfa was forced to stretch his entire left leg out as far as it would go to stop the ball instead of being able to stop it with his knee. A tricky shot. For the next hour, Alfa was attempting to keep the pace up as the machine kept firing balls in every direction.

When the hour was over, there was a small break before the computers switched programs and started again. This time Alfa was working on catching the opposing keeper's throw and sending it right back at the goal. For this task he was put in a virtual reality helmet, so he had to perform the actions on a ball and keeper only he could see and touch. The hours passed by quickly amidst various exercises and Alfa had just finished piercing through a surrounding defense when the professor informed them of the lunch break.

The two boys had until two thirty to get back for practice so they headed out to the parking lot and left for Almia Castle. Half an hour later they were at the castle and they were met in the main hall by Sicilia.

"How did you predict when I would wake up?" she demanded. Instead of answering, Ice tossed her the Sleep-Seeker.

"What is this thing?" asked Sicilia

"Sleep-Seeker. It tells us how long you've been asleep and how long you'll go on sleeping for. Those times are from seven thirty today. Let's go for lunch." Said Ice.

"What do you feel like having today Sicilia?" asked Alfa as they headed out to the cars.

"Hmm….. Pizza." She replied after thinking carefully.

"Ok then, we'll go to Marnier's Pizza." Said Alfa as they piled into the cars. Sicilia was in the front seat with Alfa. Ice was in his own car.

"Race you there." Said Ice.

"You're on." Said Alfa

"Three." Said Ice over the intercom.

"Two". Said Alfa

"One." Said Ice again.

"GO." Cut in Sicilia.

The two cars were parallel each other and the ice chunks had all been cleared out by Latios that morning. Alfa hit the throttle and pushed the car into the water submerging it in aqua mode. He turned left instead of going straight between the glaciers.

"What are you doing?" asked Sicilia. "Ice is going to overtake us."

"Rapids. They flow away from the castle and can keep us ahead for a good distance." Replied Alfa as he pulled the car to the right and maxed the throttle to go with the currents. In a matter of seconds they had reached the end of the lake and were pushing out of it. Sicilia glanced in the mirror. There was quite a gap between Ice and them. All of a sudden, Ice swiveled his car around, hit the reverse pedal, and activated the Mercedes Beam.

"Nice trick." Said Alfa as Ice passed them. "But we're still going to win." He closed the roof of the car and turned left instead of going into the cave. Sicilia saw an opening barely wide enough for the car to pass through.

"That opening leads straight into the beginning of the river. Ice will have to slow down inside the cave, but we won't." and with that Alfa throttled the car through the opening and straight into a rapid flowing section of the river. Almost immediately, they had gone under into the river Alfa looked out the windshield, Ice was right in front of and above them. Alfa switched to sixth gear and pushed ahead of Ice while he was still underwater, before taking the cabin out of the water and pushing it out to the dock. He pulled the car out of the water as Ice tried to catch up with them without success. Alfa was back on dry land and he was in sixth gear. He shot across the union road and was soon at Altru Park. He swung the car to the left, where Altru Mall now was and parked it in the first slot available. He stepped out of the car and stood next to it, waiting for Ice to pull up. He could see his car.

A minute later, Ice pulled up and parked his car next to Alfa's car. Sicilia stepped out of the car just then.

"That was crazy." She said, as she stretched her arms.

"Come on, let's get inside and eat. We took less time than usual since we raced here, so we can take our time with lunch." Said Ice. The three of them went inside and headed in the direction of Marnier's pizza. They waited in line for their turn, got their pizza and sat down at a table. All of a sudden Sicilia's phone started ringing. She picked it up and talked for a minute before cutting the call.

"So, Sicilia, what do you want to do while we're at work." Asked Alfa.

"Well, I have a friend who just called me. She moved to Almia two months ago. She was wondering if I could visit her." Replied Sicilia.

"Where does she live, we can have you there from right after lunch until well, how long do you want to be there." Inquired Ice.

"9 Altru Heights, and I'd like to be there until your next break, because I want to see the union as well." She answered.

"Ok, we'll pick you up around five thirty, the break begins then and goes till six. After that we're there till eight. Today's a long day due to practice." Said Alfa. The minute they finished discussing this and started eating, Wendy, Sven and Kellyn walked up.

"D'you mind if we have lunch with you?" asked Sven.

"Go ahead." Said Ice. So the six of them had their lunch together and after that, Alfa and Ice dropped Sicilia off at her friend's apartment. When they returned to work, the next three hours passed by in a flurry of practice exercises. Soon they had picked Sicilia up and brought her to the union. They had just showed her the operations room when the clock struck six. The boys took her to the practice room where she started talking to Rythmi about the uniforms for the team.

The first hour passed by in a flurry. Professor Hastings announced that the second hour would be an interaction hour. The Pokémon in the team were brought to the room apparently, they had been kept at practice in the partner pen. They began by shooting penalties at Ice, then they moved on to cutting through a defensive line, which also counted as blocking an attacking line, and stopping penalties. On the side lines, Professor Hastings gave Sicilia two tickets which were valid for repetition use. That meant that after the ticket was checked, she could use it again for any match including Phantom Fury.

Soon, the whistle was blown, signifying that they could go home. Tried out from playing football all day, and the occasional emergency call from somebody stopping their practice, the boys briefly said that they would be at the union by nine the next day, found Sicilia and left. When they got home, they found Uniforms in a box outside their door. A crimson V-neck t-shirt and black knee length shorts for Alfa, with crimson armband included, and a black keeper's suit for Ice.

They picked the uniforms up went to their rooms, set alarms, and literally crashed on their beds.


	8. A Day In Someone Else's Shoes

**Chapter 8**

**A Day In Someone Else's Shoes**

Ice's Day 7:30-1:30

"Hello, professor, this is Ice. Alfa kind of slipped on some ice cream he dropped yesterday and fell down the stairwell. He's not exactly going to come to work today. He'll be able to play in tomorrow's match, but he'll be unconscious for the next, maybe, twelve hours." Said Ice over the phone. Alfa actually had fallen and was unconscious.

"Yes, ok. You will be coming to work though?" asked the professor.

"Yes sir. It's seven thirty, I leave at about eight thirty for the union." Said Ice as he cut the call. "Sicilia, can you keep an eye on Alfa. He slipped on last night's chocolate ice cream and fell down the stairs. He'll be out until seven thirty just check on him every hour please."

"Okay. I have some movies I want to watch, so can you just help me get him to the lounge?" she replied from across the hall.

"Sure thing." Said Ice as he ran through the hall to the mattress on which he had placed Alfa. He carefully removed the mattress from under Alfa and put it away. Then, he hefted Alfa up onto an ironing board with wheels he had brought from the storage room and took him to the lounge where he just left the ironing board after moving him onto a couch. "Done. I'm off to work as soon as I get some breakfast."

Saying this, Ice raced down to the kitchen and threw a few sausages in a pan of boiling water. A few seconds later he had breakfast in a plate and was eating it calmly. If there was one thing about food he was sure of, it was that you didn't eat too fast or you really would be sick. It had happened to Heath once. Mr. Hall had taken them to a restaurant and Heath had eaten his food too quickly. It had been amusing to see the hefty man, who was stronger than a rhypherior, to be rushing to the men's room every five minutes.

Ice finished his breakfast, and after washing his hands, he went out to his car, fished the keys out of his coat pocket and set off on his way to work. His day was relatively boring compared to Alfa's but he had practice to make him run about. Professor Hastings had been concerned about Alfa not being able to practice, but Ice had assured him that Alfa would probably come to work early and make up for it, if he was right. He decided to take a detour and find out how Alfa managed to catch up with him the previous day.

He swung around the cave's entrance and stopped the car. He got out and examined the wall. He saw one opening to his left. He glanced inside and watched the water flow in front of him. He guessed that the river was being fuelled by the rapids which flowed in Almia Lake. He had always wondered where they ended up. He realized that he had just proved wrong the theory that Almia River began in Crysta Cave. He got back in his car and entered through the gap, submerging the car and reaching the end of Crysta Cave far faster than he normally would have.

He was soon inside the union, at the partner pen, observing his brother's Swampert. His brother had four partner Pokémon there and he had decided to examine and research and further the database on them. Latios he could examine, actually, he could examine it after lunch. He opened his computer and began entering facts into his computer, he had a keen eye for random details. He soon found out that swampert's muscles didn't naturally from after evolution and just remain that day when he saw Swampert exercising. He realized from that one observation that Pokémon had to work to stay strong, as did humans. Pokémon trainers kept their Pokémon fit by battling, and Pokémon rangers by getting their Pokémon to help them.

About Swampert in general he found out that their arms tensed right before they attacked. He observed this as Swampert attacked the target on its pen's wall. Swampert typically didn't seem like ground types but people would be proved wrong when one used earthquake or mud shot or any other variety of ground type moves.

After observing Swampert for a little bit longer, he moved on to Sceptile. He looked at its arms first, realizing that there was something wrong when he only saw one leaf blade on each arm instead of three. All of a sudden, two more sprang out from behind it. So Sceptile could conceal two of its blades. Interesting. Another thing he observed was that Sceptile generally stood straight, but when it was about to attack, it bent forward ever so slightly. All of a sudden, Sceptile turned around to a patch of burnt grass in its pen. It stood tense for a minute as a fruit swelled up on its back. It plucked the fruit and planted it in the middle of the burnt grass and used solar beam on the patch of grass, diverting the light into the patch. All of a sudden, the grass started to reverse color from black, to yellow, to green.

So Sceptile could heal dead grass instead of just planting new grass there like most grass types might do. He headed away from the pen and went to Blaziken's pen. It was standing in front of the target in its pen, where it was practicing Blaze kick. Nothing new was seen in the next few minutes by Ice, until Ice looked at its arms. Where there should have been flames, there was nothing. All of a sudden, Blaziken looked out the window. It saw Ice looking at its wrists, so it twisted one, and flamed appeared on it. Seeing this. Ice rapidly noted it down in his head. He moved on to Aggron, his brother's newest partner.

There weren't many people who could observe an Aggron's daily habits up close, so not that much was known about Aggron as compared to other Pokémon inside the union. The most common fact was that it ate metal. Ice sat down outside its pen and looked through the window. Aggron was retracting its tail. First, the one or two spikes went in, then the outer plating mover inwards covering up the inner plating. Like and antenna being put away. He glanced at the clock on the wall. Twelve twenty.

'Damn! I spent nearly three and a half hours observing Alfa's Pokémon!' he thought to himself. He opened his laptop, cataloguing his research, before he switched his phone on. There was one message from Sicilia. She was saying that the friend she had visited the day before was looking for a place to stay for a few weeks while her parents were out of town, and she was wondering if Alexis could stay with them. She had already packed her things but was looking for a place to stay. Sicilia said that she had given Alexis his number and told her to call him for confirmation, and that if she could stay with them, then could he bring her over at lunch.

Ice smiled to himself as he dialed Sicilia's number.

"Hello, Sicilia, I got your message. Het the guest room ready. And by the way, check with the sleep-seeker if Alfa's time has changed." He said over the phone.

"Thank you so much Ice! Alfa's readings haven't changed. I'm just going to get the guest room ready. Thanks, bye!" replied Sicilia before she cut the call. Ice had just turned the screen off when his phone began to ring. He glanced at the time; exactly twelve thirty. He picked up the call.

"Hello, is this Ice Snowbelle?" came a feminine voice from the other end.

"Yes, and who might this be?" asked Ice, amused that she was right on time.

"This is Alexis Lilies, Sicilia's friend. Did she tell you why I'm calling?" replied Alexis.

"Yes, she left me a message. You can stay with us. Have you packed your things?" inquired Ice.

"Yes. When will you come to pick me up?" asked Alexis. "We can't exactly get to Almia Castle."

"Good. Tell your parents I'll be along to pick you up in around fifteen or twenty minutes. I'll see you soon." Said Ice, as he headed downstairs, cutting the call as he finished. He went to his car and started the engine. He pulled out of the parking lot and went down the union road, not hurrying for no reason. He had the roof down and the wind was blowing. He smiled as he let the wind ruffle his hair. It was a nice day to be driving along union road in a convertible. He pulled into Altru Park and parked in the building where he used to live.

He climbed the stairs to the second floor where apartment number nine would be. He found the apartment and knocked on the door. A woman who looked like she had been packing, carrying a few pairs of socks, came to the door.

"Hello, who might you be?" asked the woman.

"I'm Ice. I'm one of Sicilia's older brothers. I'm here to pick Alexis up. She's staying with us while you'll be on vacation." Replied Ice.

"Yes, thank you so much for having her, I'll just go get her." Said the woman who turned out to be Alexis's mother.

"Not a problem." Said Ice as the Mrs. Lily went off to find her daughter. She soon returned with a young girl about Sicilia's age, who had reddish hair and brown eyes. She was wheeling one largish suitcase and carrying a backpack.

"Hi Ice." Said Alexis. 

"Come on, let's get going." Said Ice as he took Alexis's baggage while she went and said goodbye to her parents. She soon returned to the door and followed Ice to his car. He loaded the trunk and the two of them got into the car.

"Alexis, can you dial Marnier's pizza from my phone please, we're ordering lunch." Said Ice as he turned out of Altru Park. She dialed the number and soon the call was coming through the car speakers.

"Hello, this is Ice Snowbelle, I'd like on order off the Snowbelle usual air delivered to Almia Castle please." Said Ice over the phone as they cruised along Union drive

"Sure thing Mr. Snowbelle. It should be there in one hour." came a male voice from the other end. Ice cut the call and started speaking to Alexis.

"Okay Alexis, we're going to drive into the river, so don't freak out." Before she could say anything, Ice turned off the dock and hit river mode. "Alfa and my cars can traverse bodies of water from underwater, and like this. We're going to roof ourselves and go underwater in the cave. Too many Zubat to go roofless."

They reached the mouth of the car and he submerged the car. He steered it through the river to the edge of the river and climbed onto the land inside the cave. It wasn't safe to go back through the rapids. He steered the car out of the cave and onto the snowy ground of Hia Valley. It was a good thing the cars had come with ice and snow tires. He drove the car all the way back to the castle and soon the he was having lunch with Alexis and Sicilia.

Sven's day 2:30-7:00

Sven was back at the Chroma Highlands, dealing with the supervising the demolition of the CES labs. They had been shut down due to the Blast Fuel experiment. According to Keith, that had been quite a fiasco. He was watching as the men were carrying out the last tank of Blast Fuel to a tow truck. Where the cars should have been, there were four more tanks of Blast Fuel. They were to be carried out for safe disposal before the demolition began. The men loaded the tank onto the trailer.

All of a sudden, a wild Skarmory flew right beside the tanks, piercing all of them. They started to leak a bit. It wasn't much, thought Sven. It could be patched up easily. Just as he turned to tell one of the men to get a patch, a Charizard flew by, presumably chasing the Skarmory. Unfortunately for Sven, the blast fuel had leaked to the floor and had pooled together, making a sort of a fuse, and Charizard's tail had lit it.

All hell as he knew it broke loose as the tanks exploded with a blinding light. Two or three of the rock faced wall on the sides of the upper levels of the highlands had been destroyed, but the ground under Sven and his Luxray had collapsed, dropping them into the Chroma Ruins.

"Hey guys, I'll find my way outta here. I know the place pretty well. You get a cement tanker and a crane and fix the hole. We'll work on the demolition once I'm out." He yelled up.

"Okay boss." Yelled back one of the workers.

Sven headed to the left as he tried to gauge where in the Chroma Ruins he could be. He started to look for any trace of a hint. He realized that he might have gotten lost in one of the levels he hadn't been to. He turned this way and that way, determined to find his way out of there. All of a sudden, he found himself face to face with a wild Bastiodon.

"BAASTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!" it roared at him.

"SHUT UP!" replied Sven, not in the mood to get annoyed by the Bastiodon.

"DONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!" it roared at him again.

"SHUT UP!" Sven yelled back, resisting the urge to hit it in the face, knowing it would only break his hand. All of a sudden, the Bastiodon turned around and fled in the opposite direction. He looked around, noticing that sparks were flying from Luxray's fur. He turned around headed on the opposite direction of the Bastiodon.

He soon found himself on a path he vaguely remembered. He tried to remember where he was. Then it hit him. He was on the path to where the Luminous Crystal had resided when it had been the Shadow Crystal. He remembered that there was a way out through that gap and headed that way. He noticed that something was different about the path. There used to be a statue there.

He entered the room where the Shadow Crystal used to be, and saw something he would never forget.

"WHAT THE HELL." He exclaimed. There was a wild Registeel rampaging around the room. He remembered that the statue had had the same pattern at its base that Registeel had on its forehead. He guessed that it had been disguising itself all this time and it had woken up. He launched a capture disc and attempted to capture the legendary Pokémon, nearly breaking his styler a couple of times. In the end he managed to calm it and released it, heading out of the ruins, using the ladder in front of the Altru Shack.

He walked across the highlands to find that his team had successfully fixed the hole in the floor.

"Let's start demolishing." Said Sven. Soon there was nothing left of the labs. 'Blast Fuel's a real pain in the ass.' Sven thought to himself. He headed back to Altru Park, to hear an alarm wiling inside Altru Mall. He ran inside to find the jewelry shop being robbed. He kicked the thief between the legs from behind and kneed his back, knocking him down. Sven put his foot on him and took his sack, tossing it back to the owner.

"Get up, and get out." Sven shouted at the thief. He pushed him a bit as he scrambled to his feet and fled.

"Thank you mister ranger. You get married in park, a while ago, yes, I watch from shop window, yes. I give you present for your wife, yes. Anything from the shop, yes. I thank you very a lot." Said the shopkeeper. Sven guessed he was foreign from the bad English and his accent. The man came to Sven with a jewelry box.

"Your Lady, she like this, she came someday with two other girls. I give this to you as gift, yes." Said the man.

"It's a ranger's duty to help the public in any way possible. No thanks is necessary, I'll pay for this by card." Said Sven.

"No I insist, yes." Insisted the man. After arguing for a few more minutes, Sven gave in and took the necklace thanking the man and headed home. Wendy was just going to love this.


	9. Mach 1

**Chapter 9**

**Mach 1**

Alfa woke up on the day of the first match of the rank league. He remembered he had fallen down the stairs the day before and had been unconscious until dinner, seven thirty to be precise. It was four in the morning. He hadn't been able to sleep, he had gotten more than enough the day before. The sun was rising so he changed his clothes and headed out to the garden. Sicilia, Ice and Alexis were all still asleep. He crept down the stairs and made his way out of the castle.

The sun was rising from behind a glacier, and the orange light phased and refracted through the ice, creating a truly breathtaking scene. And in the center of the multi colored phasing light, was a jet maybe, flying at what he guessed was Mach 1. The jet turned around and headed straight for Alfa. He realized that it wasn't a jet. Jets couldn't stop that fast and turn that quickly in such a tight turn. He focused on the object, realizing that it was Latios. But Latios had never been able to fly that fast before.

All off a sudden, Latios was right in front of him, coming to stop. Latios stopped in a single second, about a foot away from Alfa. A second later, there followed a loud blast noise. The effect of being faster than sound.

'What woke you up?' thought Alfa.

'The sun. I was sleeping in one of the towers and I forgot to close the curtains.' Replied Latios, settling down on the ground to rest its wings. 'What about you?'

'You know I can't sleep because I was out for twelve hours yesterday.' Answered Alfa. 'How long have you been flying that fast for?'

'About an hour now.' Replied Latios, getting up from the ground. 'We missed out on practice yesterday. Do you want to go to the union now and catch up? I'm pretty sure you do.'

'You know me too well.' Thought Alfa with a smile. 'I'll just be a minute. I have to grab my styler and leave Ice a note.' Latios nodded in reply as Alfa turned and went back to the castle. He was in his ranger uniform, so he packed his team uniform, his styler, a bottle of water, and a few other things. He turned to thee messaging board in his room. Each of the bed and guest room had a messaging board. It was a touch screen board with a metal frame and a blue back grounded screen. You took a stylus, wrote the registration of a room's board and wrote a message. In this case, Alfa wrote Ice as the registration.

He wrote out a message, and ran down to the kitchen, grabbing a cold turkey and mozzarella sandwich on his way out. He pulled a pair of goggles out of his bag and approached Latios.

'I'm leaving the car behind, we only need one today. I've told Ice where we'll be. Let's go at top speed and dive into the Almia River to muffle the blast at the dock, k?' thought Alfa.

'K.' replied Latios. Alfa climbed aboard Latios and wore the goggles, knowing he would need them to see at that speed. All of a sudden Latios set of, just as Alfa had put the sandwich in a plastic box and stored it in his bag. Latios was flying at speeds that most plane engineers were still trying to reach. It was crazy. They crossed the Crysta Cave from the inside to try maneuvering at that speed. They made it through, but Alfa nearly hit a stalactite once or twice. It was a crazy experience, but Alfa loved every second of it. He could tell Latios did too. They made it out of the cave and Latios flew along the surface of the water, and as soon as the dock was in sight, the duo held their breath and took the flight underwater. The blast followed them, and sent all the water in that part of the river flying. It muffled the sound well, and it was a good way to water the plants. The stopped flying as they climbed over the dock. Alfa went straight up to the training center, knowing it was empty and that the walls were soundproof, as ranger training usually created a lot of a ruckus.

He showed his styler to unlock the room and crept inside, turning the lights on. He and Latios were alone in the practice area. Latios headed over to the keeping net and set the program for Pokémon. Alfa headed over to his own station and set the program as well. He would have breakfast later, after training, or he would just throw up. He got the ball ready, knowing he would have to work his backside off if he wanted to be in good enough playing form for the match. To not have their captain with them on their first match, not something Alfa wanted to put his teammates through. He positioned the ball for a penalty kick and sent it flying towards the goal.

Three and a half hours later, at Almia Castle

Ice woke up confused. He had had the craziest dream. He had been running from a gigantic ice cream cone which was yelling; "I'm going to make you slip as well!" he rubbed his eyes and sat up in bed. The first thing he noticed was a message on the messaging board opposite his bed. He read the message;

'_Ice, I've gone to the union to practice for the match, I woke up at four by the way! Anyways, I'm going on Latios. We only need one car today for the four of us. I took one of last night's sandwiches for breakfast. I'm at the union, you have to bring Sicilia and Alexis, their tickets let them watch all our matches from the bench. See you at the union. Alfa.'_

He smiled to himself. He had known Alfa wouldn't be able to sleep and would go to practice. He glanced at the wall clock. It was seven thirty-five. H got out of bed and got ready. He left his rom and went to wake up Sicilia. He knocked on her door and entered. She was awake, looking like she too had just woken up.

"Go wake up Alexis. We have to leave at eight fifteen to not be late." Said Ice briefly as he went down to get sandwiches out for breakfast. Might as well finish them. There were four left. He put three on the table and put the fourth in a box, guessing that Alfa had only taken one, and knowing that after practicing as vigorously as he was probably practicing now, he would need another.

Soon everyone had eaten and Ice went up to get his bag ready. He packed his uniform and the sandwich along with a water bottle of his own. He went outside and called Articuno down.

"Girls, let's go. It's eight ten. Be at the car in five minutes." Yelled Ice. Five minutes later they were all seated in the car, ready to leave. They had just traversed the lake, but there was a herd of Piloswine in the way. There were so many that there was no way around or through them.

"Articuno, a little help here would be nice!" called Ice. Up in the sky, Articuno heard Ice call and swooped down. It spread its wings wide and gusted a blizzard at the herd driving them out of the way. When Articuno stopped, the herd was gone, but there was a pile of now in their way.

"You've got to be kidding me." Groaned Ice. He hit the Mercedes Beam and fired at the pile, within a minute, it had melted. He hit the accelerator and the rest of the way to the union was clear luckily. He parked the car in the union's lot and went inside, the two girls trailing slightly behind him. He stopped at the partner pen, bringing Alfa's four other Pokémon with him. He knew Aggron wasn't in the team but it would make a good defender, so he decided to try and persuade the professor. Its massive frame would block most attacks. The eight of them, Pokémon included, made their way to the training room, which Ice unlocked with his left iris. He walked in to find Alfa sitting down with a bottle of water and a towel around his neck. There was an empty plastic box next to him, which Ice assumed the first sandwich had been in. he opened his bag and tossed Alfa the second one.

"You're going to need that." Said Ice as Alfa opened the box.

"Thanks bro." replied Alfa before he began eating. In a matter of minutes he was finished.

"I'm thinking you want to convince the prof to put Aggron on defense. Luckily for him, Aggron has a place to fill, as Luxray injured its front paw yesterday when it and Sven fell into the Chroma ruins. It landed on all four feet, but a rock fell on its foreleg." Said Alfa once he was done.

"Good. Practice is at nine fifteen, but as always, we're supposed to be here at nine." Ice remarked, turning to Sicilia, "Sicilia, do you want to show Alexis around?"

"I would, but I've forgotten the way around here myself. I've only been here once before this." She replied.

"We've only got about five minutes before nine, so we'll show you around some other time, you're staying with us for around three weeks." Alfa said to Alexis. "Hey, Sven and Wendy are here."

Sven and Wendy walked through the door, Staraptor and a limping Luxray following them.

"Guys, we're one defender short for the second half. Luxray's leg isn't getting any better." Said Sven as he and Wendy walked in.

"Hence, Aggron." Said Alfa bluntly. All of a sudden, Kellyn and Keith walked in, followed by the rest of the team who lived at the union. Professor Hastings walked in impatiently.

"We have a problem. Luxray is injured. We need another defender." He announced to the team.

"Professor, we'd like to try Aggron for defense and move Luxray to substitute if it works out well enough." Said Ice.

"A brilliant idea. Training starts now we stop at ten fifteen, everybody changes into uniform then and we pile into the bus and head off for the stadium." He said. "Chop chop, move quickly now." Commanded the professor.

Everybody headed to their stations to practice as Alfa took Aggron to its new station and told it what to do.

"Aggron. Ronn, ron." It said as it nodded. Seeing this, Alfa smiled and headed off to his own station. Each station was against the walls with a divider between each one. The middle of the room empty. Alfa began training with receiving passes and as he ran for a far shot, he saw Sicilia and Alexis going from station to station, looking in on everybody to see what they were doing. He engaged himself in training, leaping in every direction to catch every pass the machine shot at him. Twenty minutes later, he was attacking the net when Sicilia and Alexis came to his station. He noticed them but continued with his training. Not saying anything, the duo just watched as Alfa shot countless goals into the net against a virtual keeper this time, the ball was holographic and he had motion sensors along his body so he didn't need a helmet to see it. The two girls moved on around ten minutes later to Ice.

Ice was blocking shots when they came by. The machine was firing footballs in every direction when the two came up behind him. And Ice was blocking every single one. Not a single shot did he let into the net. Each and every save was made with ease or brilliance or unimaginable grace. How Ice managed to stop all those shots Sicilia and Alexis couldn't understand.

Soon the training session was over and they all went to the restrooms in the union to get changed into uniform. Five to ten minutes later, the entire team was standing in a line in uniform. The girls had pants instead of shorts, Alfa had a crimson Armband on his shoulder, and Ice was wearing a full sleeved shirt with shorts; the keeper's uniform. Even the Pokémon had uniform. They had all been specially sewn by the union's seamstress. She had worked furiously to make Aggron's uniform while they were practicing. Some Pokémon just had shirts and some had shirts and shorts.

The team piled into the union bus, and set off for the Puel town arena. Their match was home today. They arrived at the arena to find it empty save a janitor. A few minutes later, Gemstone arrived. They had come the day before and had stayed overnight in Pueltown. The two teams began practicing on either half of the field as the crows slowly began to pour in. when half the stadium was filled, both teams returned to the benches. The match was due to start at twelve, and soon the stadium was filled.

The two captains shook hands and the game began with Gemstone kicking off. Gemstone was wearing a white uniform, with a purple keepers' uniform. Volkner, Tate and Maylene struck hard at the Phantom defense, pressing against the defenders and keeping them on their toes. All of a sudden, Volkner pushed past Marcus and tried to net the ball, kicking it into one of the upper corners. Unfortunately for him, Ice was prepared, and caught the ball, throwing it straight out to Keith. Keith and Solana took the ball past the midfield line and through the Gemstones' midfielders to Kellyn. Kellyn took the ball as far as the defenders before passing it to Sven who was in the area. Norman raced forward, stopping Sven in his tracks, but couldn't steal the ball, which he sent to Lunick.

Lunick struck the ball at the net, but Brawly stretched his leg out and sent it flying to Roark. All of a sudden, Kellyn came out of nowhere, stopping the ball with his chest before it could reach Roark, speeding forward to the defensive line, passing it to Alfa, trusting him to get it past Byron. Alfa did manage to pull past Byron but was stopped by Norman, where he passed the ball back to Kellyn who kicked it at the goal again.

Brawly dove for it, and touched it with his fingertips, but the ball still flew into the net. They had scored! A few seconds later, after the opponents kicked off, Volkner struck hard at their defense again, being stopped this time by Ben. Ben took the ball from him and sent it flying across the stadium to a waiting Alfa. Receiving the ball, Alfa twisted a path through the defenders and shot at the goal as Liza decided to tackle him, but not until after he had kicked the ball did she collide with him and receive a yellow card.

The ball was going straight at Brawly, but he made his mistake there. He dove for the ball, but it passed under his horizontal body. Had he not dove for it, he could have stopped it. The score was two-one to Phantom Fury. Gemstone kicked off as the whistle for half time blew.

The second half started a half hour later, with the Phantom's Pokémon kicking off. Sceptile and Cranidos kicked off, taking the ball to the opposing half. Before a minute had passed, Blaziken had shot at the goal. It was a strong kick, but the opposing side's keeper, Hariyama, stopped it throwing it out to the defenders. Before the ball reached them, Cranidos struck out with its head, but Hariyama stopped the ball again, this time throwing it out to midfield. Medicham and Electivire carried it out to the Phantom defense barely making it past them, sending the ball to Lucario, who kicked it at the net. Latios stopped the ball with one outstretched arm and threw it back out, only to have it headed back by Lucario, this time, entering the goal.

Understanding that the Gemstone defense was too good, the phantom Pokémon kicked off, staying on the defensive now. They had brilliant defenders and an amazing keeper, they just needed to play according to the enemy's style. Aggron, Swampert and Infernape closed up the goal, with Articuno's help while the attackers tried to focus on increasing the lead. Blaziken, Sceptile and Cranidos, aided by Feraligator, tried to score multiple times, failing every time, mostly due to the defense. The Gemstone defense consisted of three bulky Pokémon to stop the ball and one Medicham to send it back out. They kept blocking the phantom attempts to score.

At the last attempt to score, Hariyama decided to use force palm and sent the ball all the way out to Electivire. All of a sudden, Electivire kicked the ball at the goal. Latios saw the ball coming and decided to try something crazy. It blasted in the ball's direction at Mach 1, stopping after a second. Everybody in the crowd gaped at it. A second later, the blast came back and sent the ball flying into the air.

Electivire pushed Medicham and Lucario into the air one by one, with Lucario jumping off Medicham in the air, sending towards the ball. Seeing this, Latios blasted off again, and caught the ball with its head, sending it to the gemstone goal. Hariyama stopped it and threw it low. Latios wasn't done yet though. It flew down and intercepted the shot right in front of Hariyama, heading it back into the goal. The whistle blew for time as the ball crashed into the net.

Everyone on the Phantom Bench started celebrating as the team gathered, but their joy was short lived. The stadium roof began to retract.

Standing above them, on a hover stand, was none other than Mr. Kincaid, the official of team dim sun who had posed as a teacher at the ranger school. He started laughing maniacally through a megaphone on his stand.

"None of you, will leave this stadium alive!" he exclaimed, a shadow looming over his head. Silently praying, Alfa looked further up to see which Pokémon Kincaid was controlling via miniremo;

Lugia.


	10. Shine Forever

**Chapter 10**

**Shine Forever**

Alfa stared at Kincaid. He was standing on one of the hover stands used by the Pokémon pinchers in Oblivia before they had been disbanded. And above him, controlled by Miniremo, Lugia. It was beyond comprehension that Lugia, lord of the seas, should be controlled by a mere miniremo. And besides, Alfa wasn't sure that it was a miniremo, since any dark shards in the vicinity of the Almia region should have turned clear. Kincaid had invented something else, and nobody knew how much damage this device could withstand.

"None of you, will leave this stadium alive!" Kincaid exclaimed, keying in a sequence on the dashboard in front of him. Lugia roared as it sealed off every entrance or exit using its psychic abilities. Then, it closed the roof of the arena focusing on a point in space. All of a sudden, a geyser burst from the ground in the playing field. Then another, and a third and a fourth and fifth. Geysers kept bursting out of the ground, slowly filling the ground. The players and their teams climbed over the edges of the walls and into the stands. Every single member of the crowd had run to the highest edges of the ring.

The two teams went up to midway before stopping to strategize. Kincaid had closed the arena with the clear roof, so that he could watch. Alfa analyzed the situation, trying to find a way to stop Kincaid. All of a sudden, the gemstone captain's Slaking headed to the top of the stands, and started attacking the glass. Every other Pokémon that had muscle followed and started to pound on the glass as well, to no avail. All of a sudden, Kincaid's voice flooded through the stadium speakers.

"I applaud your attempts, but they are in vain. There is no exit from my death trap." He cackled.

All of a sudden, Norman recalled Slaking, only to throw the poké ball at the roof at high speed. Right before the ball hit the roof, Slaking came out and slammed into it at forty miles an hour. Nothing happened. Norman recalled Slaking as it fell, stopping it from crashing into the water, which had risen up to the first few rings of seats. Everybody had moved to the upper levels now. Out of frustration, Alfa slammed his fist into the roof, only succeeding in hurting himself.

"GO KILL YOURSELF ARSE!" Exclaimed Brawly.

"Now now, watch your language Brawly. There are children in there." Kincaid taunted through the speakers.

"WATCH YOUR OWN LANGUAGE PIECE OF **********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************" The last part was ineligible as Norman had clamped his hand over Brawly's mouth since there were quite a few children in the arena.

"You know what? I think that just drowning you is too boring." Said Kincaid as he keyed in another sequence. "Let's make this exciting, shall we." All of a sudden, the geysers stopped, and Lugia began calling out. The geysers began to flow again as through them came a pod of Gyarados.

"Holy crap." Swore Keith silently. Lugia itself was still outside, crying out again and again. The Gyarados began to rampage inside the stadium, sending twisters every way and causing destruction in every direction. They were showing no mercy. They had been summoned by their master, and Kincaid had taken control of them. Alfa looked up as he heard a different call. Coming up behind Lugia were Zapdos and Moltres. Articuno had already been befriended by Ice, and couldn't be summoned by Lugia. He started to worry about what Kincaid could do to them with all these powerful Pokémon to fulfill his every whim.

An hour of futile attempts to escape later….

Nothing they were trying was working. Lugia was teleporting lightning rods into the Gyarados' mouths and Zapdos was electrifying the water. The Gyarados were safe from electrocution, but nobody else was. Every attempt to make things better by the rangers had failed.

The glass wouldn't break, and for every Gyarados they captured and returned to the ocean, Kincaid just summoned more. It was crazy. Nothing was working. And to top it off, Moltres was setting random parts of the stands on fire. Sure the Gyarados and the water Pokémon extinguished them, but they were just continuously replenished by Moltres. It was all the two teams could do to keep themselves and the citizens safe.

All of a sudden, Ice ran to Alfa and whispered in his ear, waited until Alfa nodded and then went around passing the message around.

"Kincaid can only keep summoning Gyarados so long as he can teleport lightning rods from the defeated ones into the new ones. If we break all the lightning rods before we attack, the Gyarados will be gone!" he had said.

All of a sudden, Kincaid saw every ranger fire their capture discs. He wondered what they were up to. It didn't matter anyways, he could always summon more Gyarados.

But the discs weren't aimed at the Gyarados. They were aimed at their mouths. There was an audible snap as every single lightning rod was broke and the rangers began capturing the Gyarados again. Alfa smiled to himself. On Pokémon type down, three to go. Soon the arena had no more Gyarados in it. The Gyarados may have been gone, but there were still the three legendary birds under Kincaid's influence.

The stadium had filled more than halfway with water and was progressing rapidly. All of a sudden Latios swooped in from above Alfa and grabbed him, tossing Alfa on to its back. Latios sped around the arena a few times building up speed, before heading for the center of the roof. All of a sudden, Latios came to a halt as Alfa realized what it was doing. Mach 1.

The blast that followed was stronger than Alfa had expected, he guessed that Latios had gotten faster. The blast hit the roof and completely shattered the bullet proof glass, breaking it into powdered glass as the other rangers went down to the bottom of the arena for some reason and went under for a bit. The blast was so powerful that it knocked Kincaid into the air, shattering his hover stand, and literally knocked sense into Zapdos and Moltres who flew off.

Lugia was still there though. As Alfa looked at Lugia, he saw a bunch of ranger flying down out of the arena carrying the nets from the goals. The crowd started to escape, jumping out and landing in the nets. And Alfa was face to face with a rampaging Lugia. Alfa launched his capture disc and attempted to calm the enraged Lugia. He failed. He kept on trying, failing every single time. There was nothing he could do. It was beyond him to capture a rampaging Lugia.

All of a sudden, Articuno flew up with Kellyn riding it.

"ALFA, THE DANCE OF DISCS IS OUR ONLY CHANCE!" exclaimed Kellyn over Lugia's roaring. Immediately Alfa understood. When they had been in ranger school, Mrs. April had taught them that certain numbers of capture discs increased the power of the capture by working together, but it took great skill and finesse to execute one of those techniques. They had only been taught three. The dance of discs was one which involved two fine stylers. If two discs crossed capture lines while charging to the higher power levels, they linked.

It was one of the most complex methods, indicating a fixed pattern that had to be followed. Alfa slowly stood up on Latios's back as Kellyn rose on Articuno. He held the charge switch on his styler and sent the disc diagonally across Kellyn. Kellyn did the same and linked the two discs, beginning a formation so powerful that it could capture Lugia with ease, yet so deadly, that one wrong move could break formation and result in Lugia killing both of them.

They began to move their arms in sync, the discs moving in sync as well. Their right arms moved as though they were conducting orchestras and together, they created a blazing trail of light in the sky, all the while balancing on Articuno and Latios who were moving to avoid being hit. Alfa was completely lost in his mind, focusing only on not screwing up. The trails of light formed an image so graceful, you would expect an artist to create the symbol after weeks of labor. All of a sudden, the symbol began to glow even more strongly and shaped as a globe it was, trapped Lugia inside a sphere of light formed by the lines.

The discs returned to the stylers as Lugia was encased in the glowing sphere, captured by Kellyn and Alfa. The sphere faded away and Lugia emerged, calmed by the capture.

'You have my gratitude for saving me from the dark clutches of the human who controlled me' said Lugia through telepathy to the entire arena, which now consisted of the two teams only. Awed by Lugia's voluntary choice to communicate by telepathy to them, the two boys set down.

All of a sudden, Alfa saw a stretcher pass in front of him and get lifted up by some of the flying types and get taken to a helicopter in the sky. He thought he was hallucinating when he saw who was in it.

"Is that?" asked Alfa, not wanting to say the name.

"Yes." Sven confirmed grimly.

"She went into Cardiac arrest moments ago." Said Wendy as tears formed in her eyes.

Without another word, everybody headed out of the arena and the phantom fury immediately set of for the hospital in the bus, with Keith driving, ignoring the speed limits as he furiously swore at everyone on the road.

They reached the hospital in a few minutes and everybody flooded through the doors, shocking the receptionist.

"WHERE IS CHAIRPERSON ERMA FROM THE RANGER UNION?!" Hastings yelled at the receptionist.

"She's in the ICU, nobody can visit her for a while.

"All of you head back to the union and then go home!" exclaimed Hastings. "I will stay here. Now go. That's an order."

Sensing the professor's mood, everybody turned around and slowly headed back to the bus and the union. From there, Alfa, Ice, Sicilia and Alexis headed off for Almia castle, shaken by what had happened. Nobody said a word during either journey. At the castle, the four of them ordered dinner and sat down in front of the TV, remaining silent.

Finally, Ice broke the silence.

"Let's try and get our heads of that topic. Did you see Kincaid's clothes? Has he always dressed that badly?" He asked as they went to the table.

"Yeah. He always used to where that silly waistcoat with those spectacles of his, that horrid yellow shirt and those weird olive pants." Replied Alfa, chuckling as he remembered Kincaid from his school days.

"Is his hair naturally like that or does he do that on purpose?" asked Alexis with a giggle.

"He always used to make it like that when I was at school. He used to use a whole bottle of hair spray every day. He thinks it makes him look menacing, but it just makes you laugh even more." Said Alfa. And so the night went on with tales of the time from ranger school, an example of which was the time Keith and Kellyn had tampered with the school mega phone so that the next morning in assembly, when principle Lamont had pressed the button to speak, it had sprayed flour over him, and another time, Keith had dropped eggs from the second floor window onto Mr. Kincaid as he had exited the building.

The next day, Alfa headed out to Altru mall to meet Isaac, a boy from the ranger school who had graduated with him. The mall had been made inside the old Altru building, and the floors above ten were being used for the new Altru Inc. run by Isaac. He had wanted to show Alfa something and had arranged to meet him for lunch in the mall. Alfa had dropped his sister there in the morning with Alexis and he was to pick them up after lunch, so he had come early to meet Isaac.

He walked into the mall and saw Isaac waiting for him. He walked to Isaac and the two old friends greeted each other. Once they had their lunch and were sitting at the table, Isaac began speaking.

"Alfa, I've invented something new. I call it Star born. What it does is that it takes an enormous amount of energy, filters it through the Luminous crystal and fires it into space, creating a new star." He said.

"That's brilliant Isaac." Alfa replied.

"Yes, and it works. The only problem is that it requires so much energy, that we've only been able to run one test." He said. "The only other source of energy strong enough to fuel it is the life force of someone. And I'm not going to kill an innocent person." All of a sudden, an idea came to Alfa.

"Isaac, how long does someone's life force linger for after they die?" he asked.

"Around three hours. Why?" he replied.

"Good. You know Chairperson Erma went into Cardiac arrest yesterday and is at the hospital right. If she dies, and the professor agrees, I want you to send her life force to the stars, and name the new one Erma, in honor of her." He answered.

"I can think of no better way to honor her. If she does pass, then we will. And once you charge the energy into the machine, we can preserve it for two more days." Said Isaac. At this point, the two were in his lab, looking at the control board for star born.

"Agreed." Said Alfa.

Three hours later.

Alfa was on his way home with Sicilia and Alexis. They had stopped at the fair on the union road and had spent quite a while there. All of a sudden, his styler started ringing. He checked his voicemail. It was from the professor. Dreading what might come, he clicked play.

'Chairperson Erma, …, has passed away five minutes ago.' Came the professor's voice through his Styler.

He stopped the car and sent a message back to the professor telling him to call Isaac.

"How?" asked Sicilia, a mortified expression on her face.

"Her heart must have given out. Let's get home now. Ice is waiting." Said Alfa, and with that, he hit the accelerator and didn't stop until they were back at the castle."

The next day, at sundown, he and Ice were standing at Altru Park, everybody dressed in black. Mournful music began to play as the professor began to speak from the stage.

"Today we stand here to honor one of Almia's greatest citizens; Erma Evans, chairperson and founder of the ranger union. She dedicated her life to making the world a better place, and her efforts saw great change. Now, sent into cardiac arrest, she has passed away, and all of Almia will mourn for her. But she will continue to shine as brightly as she did when she was alive, thanks to professor Isaac of Altru Inc. Now, we send her to live with the stars." He began. With that he pressed a button, and somewhere inside the Altru office space, Isaac received the signal and started Star born. A moment later, there was a blast through the luminous crystal, and a new start blazed in the sky, visible in the night sky, as professor Hastings finished his speech.

"Erma Evans, may you shine forever."


	11. For The Greater Good

**Chapter 11**

**For The Greater Good**

Alfa woke up in his room, wondering why his head was spinning. All of a sudden, the pain came and left in a blinding shock as he remembered all the events of the previous night. There had been a celebration in Altru Park the night before to celebrate the victory, something that had been put off due to Chairperson Erma's, well, unfortunate condition. It had been a week since that day. Every other match in the league had happened and the semifinals were scheduled to happen tomorrow. That was, if something didn't come up.

The sun had risen and was shining through his window since he had left the curtains open. Alfa got out of bed and sat up. It was a Sunday, which meant that unless they were called, rangers weren't supposed to patrol. If things got out of hands, they would be contacted. He pushed the door open and walked out, checking his cellphone. He had recently gotten one so that Sicilia could contact him directly and because he needed one in any case. You could only contact so many people with the styler.

After confirming that there were no messages, he went upstairs to one of the upper rooms which had been converted into a tech lab. He walked over to the design board and keyed in his code, pulling up his last design. Alfa had decided that if he was ever to retire as a ranger before he was twenty six, he would become a trainer. A different type of trainer granted. The blue print showed the blue band that Alfa wore on his right arm. It wasn't made of silk anymore, rather it was a metallic object with a felt interior for his arm.

The upper end was slightly elevated, revealing a cavity from the front. On the outside of the cavity, there was a pattern carved into a black pad inserted in the device. Next to the design, there was a small container which clipped onto his jeans. It contained carved diamonds shards in it, carved into the same pattern of the pad on his armband. He would take one, press it into the pad, it would revolve and absorb through the pad, into the chute, from where it fired, and captured a Pokémon. Alfa had deduced that Pokémon couldn't always be happy inside poke balls, so each disc would take a certain color when a Pokémon was captured, and the name of the Pokémon would appear carved on one side. When he launched that disc, the Pokémon would be teleported from its place in his house to wherever the disc was.

Alfa smiled as edited out a few bugs and stored the program away, heading back out. He was walking down the stairs when his phone began vibrating. He had forgotten to turn the sound up now that he was awake. He checked the caller ID; Marlon Mason. He accepted the call, wondering why the captain of Wyvern was calling him at eight in the morning.

"Hello, is this Alfa Snowbelle?" asked Marlon.

"Yes, why are you calling me at eight in the morning on a Sunday Marlon?" Alfa replied.

"Damn it! I forgot about the time difference. Its midday here inn Unova. Is this a good time or were you asleep?" he asked.

"I just woke up, so you can talk without my exploding over the phone." Said Alfa.

"Yeah, we have a problem. It's us versus you in the semifinals tomorrow, but our keeper's injured and we have no reserve. I've talked it over with my teammates, and since the tournament has to go according to schedule, we're proposing that we forfeit the semifinal for a place in the runner up match, by which time Wulfric will be better. What do you say?" he proposed.

"I've got no problem with that, but we have to contact the Football Union and tell them." Alfa replied as he approached the kitchen and attempted to pour some cereal in his bowl with his left hand.

"I know, I'm on my way to pueltown on my Wailord, so if you could meet me there in a quarter of an hour, we can settle this matter." He said.

"See you in fifteen minutes." Said Alfa as he shut his phone, wolfed down the cereal and ran up to change. He grabbed his goggles and left a note for Ice, running out to where he knew Latios would be flying.

'We've got to be in pueltown in like fifteen minutes.' Thought Alfa as Latios nodded and swooped down, picking him up and tossing him onto its back.

'We'll go over the forest, it'll be faster.' Replied Latios as they passed Mach 1, soaring over Almia at an insane speed. Around twenty minutes later, they were in pueltown thanks to the shortcut. Latios looked out and saw an approaching Wailord.

'That's him I suppose?' Latios asked, heading for the docks.

'Yep, let's muffle the blast in the water or we'll wake up half of pueltown.' Replied Alfa. So to Marlon's great surprise, he saw a figure stream past him and into the water, re-emerging seconds later at a slower speed. Alfa burst out of the water and landed beside Marlon who had just stepped onto the docks and returned Wailord to its poke ball.

"Grand entrance dude!" said Marlon with a grin as wide as a Wailord.

"Let's get going." Replied Alfa. "I have to get home to my brother and sister after this." So the duo set off for the Football Union, located in pueltown's industrial district. They walked in the building, Marlon pulling a shirt out of his bag and wrestling it on so that he would look presentable.

"May I help you?" asked the receptionist, seeing the two captains side by side.

"We need to talk to the tournament organizers dude, and maybe you and I could go pick up a drink or two afterwards." Asked Marlon with a grin as the girl blushed.

"OH SHUT UP MARLON! We're not here to hit on girls!" said Alfa as he kicked him in the shin.

"This way please." Said the receptionist, her blush slowly fading away.

"I guess I deserved that." Marlon sheepishly replied. "But the offer still stands." He said as he turned to the receptionist. Before Alfa could hit him again, the duo went into a large office with three men sitting in it, looking at three wall screens in the hexagonal room.

Three minutes later.

Alfa was on his way home as Marlon left with the receptionist running after him with a stapler and a staple in his left shoulder.

He was home faster than he had expected, that or he had fallen asleep on Latios's back. He rushed into the house to find Ice at the table, finishing a bowl of cereal.

"Girls are still asleep and I got your note. Are we in the finals?" he asked.

"Yep. We can relax until for another few days." Alfa replied as they heard the sound of approaching footsteps. All of a sudden, Alexis and Sicilia came into the room.

"Morning." Sicilia mumbled as she rubbed her eyes, trying to figure out why Alfa was dressed and Ice wasn't.

"Anybody want to go rafting today?" asked Alfa.

"Rafting? Where?" asked Alexis.

"In Almia lake." Replied Ice with a grin.

"Have you lost your mind?!" Sicilia exclaimed.

"Relax, Alfa and I built a special kayak style raft which can stand the current. The point is to get caught in the current and go flying off the chunks of ice. It's be fun." Said Ice.

"If you say so." Replied Alexis doubtfully. Fifteen minutes later, the four were seated in assort of elliptical raft as the boys pushed off from the edge of the ice. A second later, they got caught in rapid flowing current were headed straight for a chunk of ice. Before the girls even had time to shout, the hit the ice and were thrown into the air. In that moment, Alfa felt the exhilaration, the excitement, the adrenaline for which they had built this raft. The girls gasped as the raft hit a wall of ice and slid back into the water. They were two preoccupied shouting with joy to feel scared after that.

They continued rafting again and again having an amazing time until one, when they headed to the opposite side of the lake, connecting to Hia Valley, to have a picnic by the edge of the lake. Articuno approached, carrying the lunch basket. The four started on lunch as they set the picnic cloth and sat down. Latios had followed them and melted the snow near them and making a small fire for them to keep warm by.

"That was amazing!" exclaimed Alexis.

"The exhilaration is just crazy, I mean, just pure crazy." Said Sicilia. "I don't understand how we enjoy it but, but we just seem to!" 

"We knew this would happen." Began Alfa.

"Exhilaration goes straight to the brain which causes it to release endorphins, causing the joy." Ice finished as he bit into a sandwich.

"Guys, it's getting really warm here, can we put out the fire." Said Sicilia as she wiped her forehead.

"Sure thing. It is getting hot." Said Alfa as he got up and threw a bunch a snow into the fire, stopping it.

"It's still really hot." Said Ice. "Look that way! There's some crazy freak melting the ice!"

The boys got up and ran towards the man who was melting the snow. He had a wide array of fire Pokémon by his side, melting the snow at an incredible pace.

"HEY YOU CRAZY GUY! STOP MELTING THE SNOW! YOU"RE MESSING WITH THE ECOSYSTEM!" yelled Ice. The man laughed sinisterly and took no notice otherwise.

"That's a miniremo! He's from the disbanded team dim sun!" said Alfa.

"Haven't you recognized me already? You only saw me last week!" exclaimed the man, cackling sinisterly. Alfa looked at the man carefully; blond hair made in a swirl, a yellow shirt, black pants and a red waistcoat.

"Mr. Kincaid." Groaned Alfa.

"I'm doing this for the greater good!" he cackled.

'He's out of his mind. His brain's messed up!' Latios exclaimed mentally.

'I have an idea. If he's out of his mind, this should work better than blasting him to god knows where.' Replied Alfa as he thought of his plan. Nodding, Latios flew off.

A few seconds later, it returned with the leftover pie from their lunch. It gave the pie to Alfa and flew up before blasting the miniremo to bits.

"You say you're doing this for the greater good? Well then I'm doing this for the greater good." Said Alfa as Latios flew off and came back again this time with a straight jacket.

"For the greater good!" exclaimed Alfa as he rammed the pie into Kincaid's face and tied him up in the straightjacket, giving him to a local who had come to watch.

"Let's go. I've had enough of him." Said Alfa as he turned around.


	12. Incyte

**Chapter 12**

**Incyte**

Alfa woke up to his styler vibrating on his bedside table. There was an incoming message. He stretched his arm out for his styler and ended up falling of the bed and hitting the floor headfirst. He groaned as he got to his feet and checked his styler. He checked the message. It was from the professor. It said that firstly the team name had been changed to Incyte. Second was a reminder of the finals the next day. They were to go up against Brotherhood, who would have been their first opponents if not for, well, Alfa couldn't remember why they didn't play against Brotherhood.

He walked towards the door and left the room, squinting in the bright light that flooded through the hall's window. His windows were curtained at the time. He checked the wall clock. Seven forty-five. Alfa walked through the hall and slipped into a room on one side. It had been converted into a cinema room, but it was exactly the same shape and size as the room two floor below it; the lab. Sicilia didn't know about the dumbwaiter in the corner, Alfa walked over to it, pressing the button as he waited for the machinery to silently pull up the dumbwaiter. He lowered himself through the opening, hitting his head against the top.

He pulled the interior lever down, making the platform on which he was crouching descend. A few moments later, he was in the lab, stepping out. He managed to hit his head again. It really was annoying. He had hit his head three times in fifteen minutes. He walked over to blueprint board and pulled up his design. The only flaw in it was how to convey his intentions to the Pokémon through the disc so it wouldn't thrash about or get injured in the process.

He stood there thinking for a good twenty minutes. He wasn't going to copy the mechanics of the capture styler. That he had sworn. After finding no answer to his question, Alfa left the room and climbed the stairs back, heading for Ice's room. It was a working day, Thursday, but they had practice, with the emergency beacon activated though. If anyone dialed 405, the phone would send out a signal, acting as a distress beacon for union operators to receive.

Alfa went to Ice's room and walked in, waking Ice up.

"What time is it?" he groaned.

"Eight fifteen." Alfa replied. "Get up, its practice day. The finals are tomorrow." He left the room, heading for Sicilia's room to see if she was awake. She wasn't. Alfa went back to his room and left a note for Sicilia via message board saying they would be back for a late lunch, and to order lunch from somewhere around two thirty. He changed into his ranger uniform and grabbed his cellphone and his styler. Ice had built the trio's phones. They operated on a normal phone network, but had been configured so the three could call each other without ordinary cellphone signal.

He went downstairs and poured out two bowls of cereal and headed out to find Latios. He found Latios clearing the way as usual.

'Be ready.' Said Alfa briefly before he went back inside for breakfast. He joined Ice at the table and wolfed down the bowl of cereal, taking a box of Tic Tac from the fridge, eating a few and putting the box in his pocket. Ice headed up to get his keys. They were using his car today. Alfa bent down to push in the metal strap .lock on his shoes. He pushed them into lock and headed out to the car. He sat down in the front passenger seat as Ice came out and took the wheel. The duo wove through the lake and made their way to the union, arriving there within a half hour. The first half of their day passed quickly amidst practice and one emergency call for which Wendy was sent out. The team broke for lunch at around two fifteen, collecting new slightly changed uniforms. His consisted of a crimson shirt with a broad white stripe in a very wide V on his chest made up of white paneling in the shape of a football's panels. His shorts were white with a red paneled stipe going inwards in a V when he joined his legs. The captain's armband had been edited so that it was again the same style of paneling as the shirt, half in red, half of it in white.

Ice's uniform was pretty much the same, just full sleeves and keepers gloves. As the two boys headed for their home, Sicilia called Ice, who tossed his phone to Alfa since they had just reached the cave.

"Hi." Said Alfa.

"Alfa, is that you? Why do you have Ice's phone?" she asked.

"He's driving. We're on our way home, have you ordered lunch?" he replied.

"Yes, subway. See you soon." She answered before cutting the call. The two boys passed through the cave as the call ended, exiting it into the snowy plains of the Hia valley. Ice hit the accelerator and they flew across the land, not slowing down until they reached the lake at one hundred kilometers per hour. A few minutes of navigating the rapids later, the boys had parked the car in the garage and were running up the stairs to Sicilia and Alexis.

"Turkey and roast beef for the two of you. I checked the weather and there's a blizzard forecast so I ordered eight instead of four so that we don't have to cook." Said Sicilia, taking two subs out of a plastic bag and sliding them across the table for the boys to unwrap and eat. The four sat down together as all of a sudden, it started snowing and the wind started blowing. The forecast was right, they were trapped in a blizzard. They spent the day playing board games since they had to conserve energy as the power lines were shaking and might have snapped. So the boys set up a battery charge.

The next day, Alfa looked out the window when he woke up at six. They had all gotten up early so that they could catch the flight to Johto, where they would play in the pokéatholon stadium against Brotherhood. The blizzard had stopped and snow was falling lightly. They had all packed their bags, and set off for the union immediately after having breakfast. Incyte was travelling by air to Johto, which was a few time zones behind, but that would let them rest once they got there. They grouped up at the union, setting off for the airport in their own cars, since the Unions Coach was out for servicing.

They were checking their bags in as Kellyn passed around a small bottle before zipping it up in his check in luggage.

"Anti-jetlag medicine. Take one now." He whispered as he passed the bottle to Alfa. Soon, the entire team was on the plane, asleep in the first class section which was empty apart from them. It seemed that not many people were going to Johto that day. As the plane touched down in Johto, Alfa woke up, realizing they had arrived. The day was here. It had been a five hour flight, departing at seven in the morning, Almian time. Johto was three hours behind them so they arrived at nine in the morning.

Alfa glanced out and looked at golden rod city's view as they passed through it in a rented coach. It was an amazing sight. Seeing this and realizing how many new places there were to see in the world, Alfa promised himself he would visit them all once. The team arrived at the stadium and sat down in the bleachers, resting until ten thirty, and then beginning practice. They stopped at eleven thirty to get their energy levels up and also not reveal their playing style to Brotherhood, who had arrived. The match was about to start at twelve with Incyte kicking off, but all of a sudden, the commentators made an announcement.

"Player, the match format has changed. There will be no half time, instead, whenever I say switch, I have a schedule here, you will stop all movement and your exact place will be taken by your Pokémon. If there is a struggle for the ball, the referee will decide who gets the ball. Ready, start!" he said, as the whistle blew at the end of the announcement. Kellyn and Lunick kicked off, Kellyn making a dash for the goal, but all of a sudden, found himself face to face with Misty and Jasmine who were blocking his path. Without stopping, he dove down feet first and slid between them, taking the ball along with him as he kicked it to Sven so it wouldn't get taken while he was still on the ground. Sven ran as far as the d, but Brock Orton managed to stop him and take the ball, sending it flying across the field to Blue.

Blue sped forward at an incredible pace, making it past the defenders and kicking the ball at Ice, who managed to stop it with the tip of his hand. As he was about to throw the ball out, the commentator shouted 'switch' through the microphone. Every single player stopped moving as their Pokémon came and stood in their exact spots before Latios threw the ball out to Blaziken who sent it flying across the field's width to Sceptile.

Sceptile, Blaziken and Cranidos weaved through the defense, taking their time to get everything lined up for a shot, before Sceptile launched the ball straight at Metagross on purpose. Alfa stood at the edge of the field guessing what had happened. The attacking trio had predicted Metagross's defense style. Metagross extended all of its legs and began spinning in the air, sending the ball to a waiting Cranidos who head-butted it back, but Metagross span into the corner and sent it straight to Blaziken, who kicked it into the opposite side of the net, scoring one for Incyte.

Blue's Scizor kicked off, weaving through the defense with an incredible speed, and leapt ten feet into the air, firing at the goal. Latios sped forward and stopped it with a sound blast, sending Scizor into the air as well, but Scizor managed to kick it in while Latios was descending. The score was even.

All of a sudden, there came an exclamation of 'switch' from the speakers. Kellyn and Lunick kicked off again, this time taking the ball into the D before passing to Alfa who kicked it into he net, curving it just below Chuck's arm. The game continued for a while, switching again twice. There were fifteen minutes left in the game when Alfa and the other went back on the field. Blue had the ball and sped into the D again, running like a madman. He kicked the ball at ice who punched it back, but Blue lashed out determinedly and sent the ball flying just pass Ice. The first goal he had ever conceded in his life.

Lunick kicked off, passing the ball to Kellyn, who all of a sudden, ran forward again, weaving through the defense, and before Chuck could try and grab the ball, he changed direction slightly and slid the ball into the goal just before the whistle for full time blew. They had won.

Three days later

Alfa woke up in the hotel, next to Ice. They were in Unova for a celebration hosted by Wyvern in Nimbasa city. Wyvern had decided to host a celebration for the top three, they had won the runner up match, and Ice and Alfa had travelled to Unova with Sicilia and Alexis. His head was hurting, and to make matters worse, he fell out of bed again and hit his head against the floor, again. Ice woke up when Alfa fell to the floor, groaning as he sat up.

"What happened last night?" Alfa groaned as he sat up.

"Major party. We had a little too much of Unova's special drinking concoctions. Whichever berry they used is making my head spin. The only thing I remember clearly is that Elesa was hitting on you." Replied Ice.

"Seriously dude?" replied Alfa as he laughed. "The only thing I remember is Skyla hitting on you." They both began to laugh hysterically as they began to remember the night before. As their heads began to clear, Alfa's cellphone began ringing.

"Hello, Alfa I have an important mission for you. Meet me at the peak of Altru tower in front of the luminous crystal as soon as possible." Said the professor, cutting the call before Alfa could answer.

"You guys go sightseeing for a couple of days." said Alfa as he pulled his jacket on and headed out. "I'll meet you at home."


	13. Never Fade

**Chapter 13**

**Never Fade**

Alfa soared through the clouds, straight to the top of Altru Tower, using the Luminous Crystal and the three gems as a guiding beacon through the dense clouds. He was riding Latios, trying to navigate through the masses of flying Pokémon running blind through the clouds. As they descended, Alfa saw more and more of the roof of Altru Tower. The moment he touched down on the surface, he saw everything, the Luminous Crystal, the three gems and the professor. He looked a bit worried.

"Ah, Alfa, you're here. Good. I assume you haven't told anybody you're here, have you?" said the professor.

"No sir. If I may ask, what's so important that I meet you here of all places without telling anyone?" Alfa inquired, keeping his styler in his hand, Latios hovering next to him.

"You see, we have a problem concerning the safety off the three colored gems. Obviously the Luminous Crystal cannot be moved, but the gems can, and that is exactly what happened. You see, somebody snuck up Altru tower yesterday night and attempted to steal the red gem. Professor Isaac was experimenting with a new source of energy for Star Born. The thief leaped from the main console to the Luminous Crystal, standing on and holding on to multiple spikes, and tried to grab the red gem, but as he was stretching his arm out, Isaac activated Star Born, and the machine sensed a closer source of energy and drained the man's life force." Began the professor.

"Your job." He continued, "Is to safely replace all three gems inconspicuously. This incident has been kept out of the papers, so plant all three gems in their original locations again. You aren't using the throne room for anything, so you can even watch the one in Almia castle. Now, be quick about your task. And let nobody see you!" said the professor as he bade Alfa farewell, handing him the three gems in a large padded bag for Latios to carry, blackened out from the both sides to prevent the gems from shining out.

Alfa set off through the clouds, deliberately flying through them, using his S-Lens proximity sensor and map as a guide as well as his rough sense of direction. He reached the castle as a short message from the professor arrived on his styler; 'All top rangers will be informed about this and you may confide in Ice. NOBODY ELSE!'

Instead off setting down and walking in through the main door, Alfa stayed in the sky and they entered through the window in Latios's tower, which was currently surrounded by clouds. He stepped off Latios once they were inside and took the sack, heading straight for the safe in his room he didn't know where Lucario had gone after he had moved into the house, so he decided to place the blue gem last. He knew that Heatran would still be somewhere in Boyle Volcano. Nowhere else was hot enough for it to maintain its body temperature. Cresselia would probably be somewhere in Hippowdon Temple. He made up his mind to go to Hippowdon Temple first. It was the safest place to try going first, since practically nobody would see him enter the Temple with the bag.

Five hours later…

Alfa was descending through the sandstorm around Hippowdon Temple. He stepped off Latios and looked at the temple door. The pit which was supposed to be filled with sand from Kellyn's last visit had drained and because of that, the doors had closed.

He leaped off the edge into the enormous depression where a Hippowdon was roaming about, surrounded by twisters of sand. He groaned. You couldn't capture a Pokémon if it was surrounded by twisters, and the ring of sand twisters was too tight to attempt sending the capture blade through.

'Here's the plan.' Latios began, reading Alfa's mind and attempting to find a solution. 'I'll swoop down and grab Hippowdon, hold it in place in the sky, then you capture it.' This plan set Alfa laughing hysterically, but he agreed anyways. The Hippowdon had become wary after Kellyn had captured it for the fourth time, and was now leaving no openings, so it was their only shot. So Latios ascended into the sandstorm, and all of a sudden, dove down and grabbed Hippowdon, carrying it into the air.

'Now!' Latios exclaimed mentally as the Hippowdon struggled, trying to escape from Latios's strong arms. Alfa launched the capture disc, looping it around both Latios and Hippowdon. It had no effect on Latios, but it calmed Hippowdon down, and Latios set it down, indicating that it follow. Soon Alfa had filled the sand pit and was inside the temple. He examined the first room. Simple. All he had to do was walk through it, avoiding the Golem's roaming around. Not as easy as it sounded, it turned out.

Fifteen minutes off being chased by angry golem's later, he was in the next room. At least there were no golems there. It was a sand trap. There were walkways, surrounded by flowing sand to take you back to the beginning, and cannons on the front and left walls firing blobs of dense quicksand. This room was easier than it seemed as all Alfa had to do was jump every time he saw a blob incoming since they were at floor level. A few minutes later, he was on the other side, standing in between two canons in front of a doorway.

The next room had a sort of maze, made of propulsion tiles from the old days. When the sensed weight on them, the rotated like a conveyor belt, sending you in a set direction, generally a cubicle with a Pokémon or other passageways. About fifteen minutes later. He was in front of one of two doors. He guessed that they were both there for a reason. He entered the one he was in front of, finding himself face to face with an angry Tyranitar. Guessing that it might be useful, he captured the Tyranitar, making his way to the other door. He fell through a hole in the floor, the only pathway. He fell and landed in a room full of walls and Pokémon as well as Springy Grass. The walls weren't that high, but he could fell an invisible barrier extending from each one of them. He was just tall enough to reach the top of the barriers but when he tried to pull himself up, the force field pushed him down. All of a sudden, he had an idea. He went to the spring grass and coiled it up so it would launch him over the wall. It was simple, yet effective.

He sprang from leaf to leaf, making his way through that puzzle. He reached the other end and passed through the room. He entered the last room, seeing nothing but a gigantic rock in the center. He turned to Tyranitar, who let a hyper beam loose at the rock, shattering it. Instead of leaving Alfa, it tilted its head to the left and looked at him inquiringly. Alfa turned to Latios, who turned to Tyranitar, and soon turned back to Alfa.

'He wants to stay with you.' Said Latios.

'I'll get Captain Puel to take him back for us. We'll leave through the village.' He replied as Latios conveyed the message to Tyranitar. The trio looked down the hole. They could barely see a patch of grass at the bottom. Alfa sighed and jumped down, landing on his feet, in a bit of pain from the fall. He moved out of the way as Tyranitar took it into its head to jump as well. The ground shook from the impact of Tyranitar's landing.

Alfa walked up to the space where the Yellow Gem was supposed to be, and placed it there. Immediately, Cresselia appeared out of nowhere. Alfa smiled and headed out the exit that could only be accessed from that chamber. One down, two to go.

A few hours later…

Alfa crashed on the couch in the main lounge of the castle, switching the TV on. He had received a message from Ice saying that they would be arriving back in a few hours. Ice's car was parked at the airport so they would be able to get back on their own. He checked the time. They were supposed to be home in half an hour. He had called from the airport again when they had arrived fifteen minutes ago. Alfa picked up the landline and dialed the sushi place in Altru Mall. He placed an order then watched a movie for half an hour until Ice, Sicilia and Alexis walked into the lounge.

The doorbell rang, so Alfa ran down to get the food after greeting them quickly. A few seconds later, they were sitting at the table. While Alexis and Sicilia chatted away, Alfa told Ice about his current mission.

"So I'm placing the Red Gem back tomorrow. I leave just before Sunrise, I need to be out of Hia valley and the urban areas before the sun rises and people can see me flying with a sack." Alfa finished, whispering so that only Ice could hear him. Ice nodded in reply, continuing to eat.

"I'm going to go to bed early, I'm a bit tired from travelling back and forth across time zones. You two should as well." Ice suggested to the girls.

"You're right. We should all sleep as soon as we've cleared the table." Alfa said. The two girls agreed, and together, the table was soon cleared. All four went to bed immediately, three tired from travelling, and one from work.

The next morning, an hour before sunrise….

Alfa woke up thanks to a vibration alarm, getting ready quickly and slipping out of his room into the brightly lit corridor. He went straight to Latios's tower room, waking him up, then going to the kitchen to get some breakfast. He opened a pack of sausages and had a few for his breakfast before slipping out of the castle into the dark morning. He knew that it would take him some time to traverse the urban areas. He was to meet Sven at the docks in pueltown. Sven was going to take Alfa across to Boyle-Land by sea in his five person hydrofoil.

Alfa set of into the night sky on Latios, carrying the Red Gem in the bag. They didn't go to Mach 1, fearing the blast would wake people up. They silently traversed the distance between Almia Castle and the pueltown docks. Sven was waiting for them by his boat, Luxray by his side.

"You ready?" he said in his natural western accent, which went very well with his attire.

"Yep. Let's get out to sea before the sun rises." Alfa replied as they boarded the hydrofoil and Sven started the engine up. The hydrofoil picked up speed and by the time the engine was audible, they were well out to sea and the sun was rising. Alfa sat down and looked over the railing, watching a Samurott leaping out of the water occasionally as it tried to keep up with the boat. It turned around out of exhaustion after an hour, amusing Alfa by staying so long. That was one determined Samurott. Alfa went entered the bridge to find Sven steering them towards a dock. They had reached Boyle-Land.

Alfa stepped out of the boat as they docked and Sven nodded, indicating that he was here till Alfa came back. Alfa crept through the village, seeing nobody about, and not wanting to wake them either. Alfa entered the Volcano through the right side entrance, making his way through the volcano. He stopped at a spot he remembered for some reason. All of a sudden it hit him. This was where he had met Aggron. He smiled to himself as he continued. The volcano didn't have any traps, since it wasn't man made unlike the temple and the castle. The only dangers were Pokémon and lava. All of a sudden, two Dim Sun grunts appeared out of nowhere, and since they were looking at each other, they didn't see him, but they were about to crash into Alfa. Looking up, Alfa saw a ledge in the wall, and frantically grabbed Latios's hand, who read his mind and took the duo up there. It was out of sight for anyone looking up luckily. Alfa could hear the two grunt talking clearly, so he muted his styler and recorded them for a voicemail to Sven, attaching a small text message with it.

Outside the volcano…

Sven had unfolded a deck chair and was trying to sleep on his boat, when all of a sudden, his styler received a voicemail and woke him up. Grumbling to himself, he checked his styler. All of a sudden, he stopped complaining and focused on the styler screen. It was from Alfa. He opened the voicemail;

"_So hey bro, what do you think of Lavana controlling Groudon. I mean, no ranger can stop Groudon. Team Dim Sun will be back in the business soon bro." _came two voices from the styler, neither of which belonged to Alfa. There was a small text message as well; _'Sven, get everybody here now! The only hope we have to stop dim sun, are the hundred hands! Everybody! Even the tech support!'_

Sven's face took on a grim expression as he listened to and read the two parts of the message respectively.

Meanwhile, inside the volcano…..

Alfa looked from his vantage point. There was a small cave like space for him and Latios to hide in on the ledge. He looked out and saw a familiar crop of long pink hair on a person next to a massive figure. Groudon. They were screwed unless they could get a hundred rangers there.

Alfa sat there waiting for hours, when all of a sudden, he received a text message; launch your disc at Groudon. Guessing it was from another ranger, he dug around in his pocket for his disc. He found two. He was puzzled but then he remembered that when he had become a ranger, Ms. April had given him the disc form his old school styler as a gift. He launched his main disc at Groudon. Lavana saw the disc, but couldn't gauge where it had come from. She started laughing when she saw it was only one disc, but all of a sudden, it was joined by a second, then a third, a fourth, a fifth, sixth and then came a cascade of discs. Looking down, Alfa counted exactly one hundred launched discs.

"WHAT THE HELL!" exclaimed Lavana as she got knocked down by the cascade of discs. The discs began circling around Groudon and all rose in the air, forming a proper ring, surrounded by a tube of glowing light defending them.

Alfa leaped down and joined his fellow rangers and co-workers including Ice. The capture kept going and going but all of a sudden, Groudon attacked the ring of discs. The tube protected the discs, except one, belonging to an idiot area ranger who had withdrawn his disc, not knowing that that tube would protect it and thus broke the capture formation. Realizing that they would probably die if they didn't do something, Alfa launched his school styler disc. As it raced and joined the ring, repairing it, Groudon sent out a blast of fire in Alfa's direction. It crossed through the gap before the last disc joined and completed the capture.

Groudon was captured, but a blast of fire was heading straight at Alfa. As Alfa stared into the flame, paralyzed, a figure dove in front of him, taking the hit for him. The force of the blast dislodged a piece of diamond from the roof, which fell and pierced Alfa's chest, lodging itself right on top of his heart. As soon as Alfa saw who the figure was, he forgot the pain in his chest.

"Ice! Ice! Ice!" exclaimed Alfa as he pounded on his chest, trying to get his heart working again. Kellyn walked forward and checked Ice's pulse. He looked up, a single tear running down his face as he shook his head. Alfa went crazy, realizing that his brother was dead. He ran straight for the ranger who had pulled his disc out.

"YOU! IT'S YOUR FAULT! IT'S YOUR FAULT THAT HE'S DEAD!" Alfa exclaimed as he tried to hit him but Barlow pulled him back. He pushed free and kept attempting to attack the ranger until twelve rangers finally managed to hold him back before he passed out from blood loss from his chest wound.

Later that evening, in Almia Grace Hospital…..

Alfa woke up on a hospital bed to find a nurse looking at him. She was around twenty, and was looking at him sadly. Sitting in a chair was Sicilia who got up and ran to Alfa crying as he woke up.

"Where am I?" Alfa asked.

"You're in Almia Grace Hospital. You've just had surgery. The diamond in your chest can't be removed, but we've repaired your systems so that you won't feel a thing. You won't be hindered by it and your body will work just as well as it normally does." Said the nurse.

"And Ice, were you able to save him?" asked Alfa, not caring about his own health in that moment. The nurse silently shook her head, the sad expression returning to her face.

"I need my phone then." Said Alfa. "And his body will be taken for a funeral. I'm not letting him be used for experiments in a hospital morgue." He finished firmly.

"As you say." Said the nurse, handing him his phone. "You can be discharged today." She said.

"Yes, I'd like that. Sicilia, we're going to leave the castle. You can move back to the Hyrax house and live with our foster parents. You still call them mom and dad don't you? Or you can move to Snowbelle city with me." Said Alfa.

"I think I'll move back in with the Hyrax's. You'll come visit in the holidays won't you?" she asked.

"Yes, I will. Don't worry. And it'll be me paying for your school. I don't want to hand too much of a workload to Mr. and Mrs. Hyrax. Go call them right now. Tell them you'll move in on….. what day is it today?" he asked.

"Tuesday." She replied.

"Tell them you're coming on Sunday. You should go call right now." Said Alfa.

As soon as she had left the room, Alfa dialed a number on his phone.

"Hank, you have my blueprints right? I'm going to send you a slightly edited version, and if you can have it built and my things moved by Sunday, I'll pay you triple. I need it on Sunday, okay." Said Alfa before he cut the line. Sicilia came back into the room.

"They're happy I'm coming back." She said. "Can we go home now?" she asked the nurse.

"Yes, I'll just discharge you." Replied the nurse as she signed a discharge form and handed Alfa his Styler and discs.

At Almia Castle, later that day, around one o'clock…

Alfa was reading in the library when he found mention of a Pokémon in Kalos that could finish his blueprint design. He went down to the lab and he built his device from his blueprint. As for naming it? The device was and Ionix, and the discs were Ion Discs.

Days later, on Saturday…

"Thank you all so much for being here today. Today we give tribute to Ice Snowbelle, a great man with a great mind. A man who didn't deserve to die so early." Continued Alfa, a few tears welling up in his eyes. "He was an older brother to Sicilia, and a twin to me. He gave his life to protect his family, to prevent me from dying. He was given a twisted childhood he didn't deserve at the hands of Wyatt Hall. In the period of his life which h had control over, he was optimistic, hardworking, and never gave up. In one short year, he gathered more information about ice Pokémon than leading scientists have in ten years. So today, we honor his memory."

Alfa turned around on the platform in front of the castle where he had been giving the speech at Ice's funeral to the battalion of ice type Pokémon which had been brought by his fellow rangers. Ice was buried where the Throne had been, and all the embers had been removed. Alfa threw the title deeds to Almia castle into the air, where Blaziken burnt them. Tears streaming down his firm face, Alfa saluted the castle, and the battalion froze it over once more, never to see warmth again. Alfa gave one final statement for Ice, who rested peacefully with the Blue Gem and Lucario to guard his body as tears streamed down his face in a constant stream.

"May your memory never fade."


	14. One Champion, Two Legends

**Chapter 14**

**One Champion, Two Legends**

Alfa walked out the door of his house, slightly put off. He had searched for Xerneas for six months since he had quit the union, yet he still hadn't found it. He flashed back to the day he quit the Ranger Union.

_Alfa walked into the union through the main doors, not in uniform, carrying a bag on his shoulder. He walked straight up to the third floor where the official de-briefing of the capture of Groudon was happening. On the third floor, Professor Hastings had just finishing when Alfa walked in. He assumed that Alfa had overslept out of grief and had grabbed his uniform in a bag and come to the Union. Alfa walked into the line of rangers taking out a document from his bag and waiting for the professor to finish. The minute he did, the professor noticed the document in Alfa's hand and decided to ask him what it was._

"_Alfa, do you have something to give to me?" asked the professor, puzzled as to what Alfa was carrying._

"_Just this." He replied, walking forward and handing him the document as the ranger filed out one by one._

"_A letter of resignation? But why?!" cried the professor, causing everybody who was still in the room to stop in their tracks. _

"_If the type of rangers we enlist are the type who would draw back, risking the wellbeing of their companions for their own safety, I want no part in this. A ranger's duty is to stand by his fellow rangers, and take the risk if it has even the benefit of seeing someone smile. So you can have these back too." Alfa replied as he handed the professor his bag. Professor Hastings unzipped it, to find a ranger uniform and a fine styler as well as two capture discs inside. _

"_Farewell Professor." Said Alfa as he took one last look at the union before leaving, taking his Pokémon with him on his way out. _

Alfa walked into the forest directly behind the house, hoping the fresh, crisp cooling air would make him feel better. He walked around through the forest aimlessly, not following any distinct path, nor keeping track of where he was going. He knew that if he got lost, all he had to do was check the compass in his watch. He forged on through a thicket of trees, analyzing his life. His parents and his brother were dead and his sister was living with the couple who adopted them when their parents had passed away. He was living in Snowbelle city alone, wandering all over Kalos looking for a mythical Pokémon that had only been seen three times in seven centuries. Pointless. But he hadn't given up yet. If he couldn't find Xerneas, there was no point in Ionix. He hadn't wasted all that time designing and debugging it just for display.

He wasn't looking where he was going and all of a sudden, he bumped into a tree. He looked up. It was in the center of a clearing surrounded by thicket, in what he guessed was the deepest most unfindable part of the forest. He examined the tree itself. It looked kind of like a greyish oak, or an acacia tree, with a somewhat jagged X carved in the center. Some kid must have carved it there though Alfa, but all of a sudden, he stopped in his tracks.

He had been about to leave the clearing, when he had remembered that the first ever time Xerneas had been sighted, it had gone into a deep slumber, assuming the form of a grey oak with an X marking in its trunk. The man had awakened it, although Alfa couldn't remember how. He turned around, and the tree was gone. In its place was a blue deer like Pokémon. It had enormous horns of an icy blue color, branching in every direction. Its legs were black in the lower halves, and it was standing with the front two crossed at the tips, looking pointedly at Alfa, its blue snout making it look more like a deer than ever.

Alfa couldn't believe it. He had gone searching for it all over the Kalos region, when all this time, it had been asleep behind his house. All of a sudden, Alfa froze as a voice spoke in his head.

'You truly grieve the loss of your brother, to miss what you were looking for.' Alfa realized that it was Xerneas who was speaking to him. He remembered a lesson taught in ranger school. All legendary Pokémon had the ability to communicate via telepathy regardless of type. The psychic type legends had the ability to establish mental links between other Pokémon, or as Latios had done, between humans and Pokémon.

'You are true to your intentions, you never give up, and you protect those you care about whenever you can. You have no bad intentions in your heart which I can sense, and you seek my aid for a good reason. The last time I saw a human with Pokémon, I wondered how Pokémon would fit inside those capsules and what they were like from the inside. Now, to find out that at least one human doesn't like the idea of that as well, that is enough for me. You truly are worthy enough to awaken me.' Xerneas continued, its horns slowly filling with light of every color and hue.

Xerneas walked up to Alfa and touched its horns against the gem in his heart, stepping back after a second or two. Alfa glanced down at his chest. The spot where the diamond was glowing through his shirt. Slowly the glow faded, and Alfa understood what Xerneas had done. It had linked the diamond in his heart to his heart, and the diamonds he touched could convey his feelings, or rather, calm a Pokémon by letting it see his true intentions. Alfa removed an Ion disc from his belt and looked at Xerneas. It nodded in reply, so Alfa pressed the disc into the pad on the Ionix, and watched it dissolve through the mark, before the mark started glowing and span, fading away before the disc was fired at Xerneas. It enclosed Xerneas in light before falling to the ground, a different, multicolored hue running through the streaks of diamond.

He picked up the disc, examining it. Carved into the side, as though by magic, was 'Xerneas'. Alfa stared at the disc for a good minute, before stowing it away and touching every other disc he had, enabling it to be used.

'We should set off if we want to reach your manor before the sun sets.' Xerneas pointed out.

'You're right.'' Thought Alfa in response, 'but which way is it?' as he pulled back his sleeve to try and check using his watch. Xerneas nudged him with its nose and pointed in a certain direction.

"Whatever you say." Alfa said out loud. He set off in that direction, Xerneas close behind. A few minutes later, Alfa found himself back on the beaten path.

'There's no point trying to remember where we came from.' Xerneas began. 'The clearing shifts location once it's been found by someone, and the person leaves.' Alfa nodded, as they reached the back side of the Manor. They entered through the back door, passing through the courtyard on their way to the enormous room Alfa had dedicated to all of his Pokémon. The minute they arrived, Alfa pressed an empty disc into the floor, before firing Ion discs at each of his Pokémon. They didn't try to dodge the discs. A minute later, once they were all captured, Latios spoke up.

'I could read your feelings and intentions through that disc. How?' Latios asked.

'Guys, meet Xerneas.' Alfa replied, leaving Xerneas to get associated with his other Pokémon and explain. 'I'm going to visit Calem. If I need any of you, I have Ionix.' With that Alfa left the house, heading across Kalos's roads to Santalune city, heading through Aquacorde town on his way to Vaniville town. When Alfa had moved to Kalos, he had met a boy his age, Calem Walker, who had been visiting Snowbelle city. Calem and Alfa were friends before they knew it, and soon they were visiting each other across cities. Calem was working part time in his father's investment group to make enough extra money to go on a journey across Kalos to become the champions with his Greninja.

His parents were well off, but he had decided when he was twelve to make the journey using his own money, so when an internship had opened at Walker Investments, he had asked his father if he could apply, and his father, delighted that his son wanted to try being an investment banker, had eagerly offered him an internship at his company. Alfa had found out about this, and when Calem had been assigned to look for an investor for fifty grand, Alfa had seen that as a business opportunity, and had invested.

Alfa knocked on the door. He heard a set of rushing footsteps and Calem came to open the door, wearing his clothes from the work day, his tie hanging loosely around his neck, his shirt untucked and a grin on his face.

"Hey, Alfa! How are you?" he asked as he stepped back out of the doorway so that Alfa could enter.

"I'm great, how was your day?" Alfa asked as the two boys headed up to Calem's room.

"Work was fine, your investment allowed dad to win over on some stock bid, and you'll get your reward for investing in a successful venture is around five times what you invested. Any progress on Ionix?" he replied. Instead of answering, Alfa unclipped the Ion disc container and tossed it to Calem. Calem opened the container and took out an Ion disc, examining the difference from when it hadn't been used. He read the name on the side and his eyes widened.

"You found it?!" he exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Loosen up man. I just found Xerneas today. I came over here as soon as I set up the teleport system. I was wondering if you could come spend the night at my place. You have the weekend off don't you?" Alfa replied, amused at Calem's response.

"Yeah sure, I'll just go tell my mother." Replied Calem as he raced down the stairs and went to his mother to inform her. He came back up the stairs at the same pace, Greninja in tow. He and Alfa shared the same opinion on keeping Pokémon in open spaces, so from the moment he had captured Greninja as a Froakie by the river bank in Aquacorde town, he had kept it outside of its poke ball. It slept in Calem's room, in a large basket with a small mattress squeezed into it.

"Oh yeah, I just remembered. I brought something for you in my car." Said Alfa as Calem came back. "I made you a couple of teleport chips and a replicator. What you do is, you open the poke ball and you fix one chip on the inside, and you fix one chip anywhere in your house. The replicator is so that I don't have to make more chips. You put an empty poke ball with a chip in one slot, and an empty poke ball with a chip comes out the other end so you have two. When you return the Pokémon to the poke ball, it gets teleported here, and when you open the poke ball, it gets teleported through the ball to wherever you are."

"That's brilliant! Thanks!" Calem replied. "Let's set it up and go." So the boys set the system up and headed out to Alfa's car. He still had the same car, but he had had it painted emerald green. They set off for the manor, Greninja waiting patiently to be teleported there. Around an hour later, the boy were in the manor, and Calem tested the system out. He threw Greninja's poke ball out and as it opened, instead of red light, bright white light came out, and focused on a spot on the floor, where Greninja appeared. The boys spent the night celebrating and having fun. That was the last they saw of each other for a year.

One year and a month later…..

Alfa walked out of his house and picked up the paper from in front of the door. In the one year that had passed, he had travelled through Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos, winning each of their Pokémon league tournaments. He had ended up at the Kalos Pokémon League Castle. He had earned the right to battle his native champion and elite four for one of their positions. He had defeated the other five champions and their elite fours as well, but couldn't claim their titles. It just so happened, that Diantha, the Kalos champion, had been looking to retire completely to acting, and had decided to step down to anyone who beat her in the one month she announced her retirement. The only roadblock for Alfa had been the other person who had earned the right to battle her.

Calem. It had come down to a battle between the two of them, a battle fought with every last bit of energy the boys and their Pokémon had had. It had come down to their last Pokémon. Calem's Greninja and Alfa's Latios. Calem had put up an amazing fight, holding the type advantage, but in the end, it had been Alfa who had won, by one bare second. The two Pokémon had been circling each other, tired to the point of collapsing. And they both collapsed. Later, from the recording made by the league cameras, it was found out that Greninja had collapsed half a second before Latios, and Alfa had been crowned champion. Calem had chosen not to bump one of the elite four on the promise that he was next in line for champion, unless somebody beat Alfa, which nobody of that time could do. Alfa had beaten every gym trainer he had faced, every gym leader in six regions, their respective Elite Fours and their champions, defeating them all by a greater margin than he had defeated Calem by.

Calem had moved to Snowbelle city as well, loving the weather and the atmosphere there. Alfa focused on the paper, particularly an article about the Snowbelle Sounders. There was a notice that tryouts for the team were beginning for the listed positions. Two forwards, a right back defender, and to midfielders. Alfa smiled to himself as he looked up. He saw Serena walking through the city looking for some place. He had met Serena at Calem's house. She was one of the two girls from Vaniville town who had gone on a journey at the same time as Calem. The trio were good friends, and as Alfa knew, she and Calem were building up a relationship which had started when they had seen fireworks together at the Parfum Palace.

Alfa guessed that she was looking for Calem's new house so he walked up to her.

"Hi Serena. How have you been doing? I haven't run into you in a long time." He greeted her.

"Oh hi Alfa! I'm doing great, I just can't seem to find Calem's new house though. Do you know where it is?" she asked.

"Follow me." He said. He led her to the front terrace entrance of his house.

"But this is your house, isn't it?" she pointed out.

"I'm not finished yet. Yes this is my house. Calem is my neighbor on the left." Said Alfa, pointing to the manor next to his.

"Oh thanks! I'm just going to go meet him. Is there anything you want me to tell him?" she said.

"Why don't you two meet me for lunch at Casa Italia? Lunch is on me. Say around, two. See you then." Alfa replied as the two parted ways, Alfa heading into his own house, Serena heading for Calem's.

A few hours later, the three friends were sharing lunch at Casa Italia. They had had a lot of fun catching up with each other, laughing at the fact that the newspapers still hadn't printed the fact that there was a new champion. Alfa had told Calem about the openings in the Snowbelle Sounders, and the dup had agreed to go after lunch to try out. Calem was a good enough player to have been the captain of Wyvern, but he wasn't a gym leader. He was good anywhere on the field but he was best in the forward position.

Three hours later, at the Sounders Stadium…..

Alfa and Calem sat down on the bench, out of breath. The coach had put the ten people who had tried out through a rigorous training schedule. They had all been assigned numbers and the coach would tell them which numbers would stay at the end of the tryouts. Alfa had seventeen and Calem had eighteen. They had been given random numbered vest from the storage room.

"Okay, I'm going to say your number and either tell you to get out, or get in line with the rest of the team." He began.

"Forty two, get out! Fourteen, get in line, you're right back! Eighteen, get….. In line! Seventeen, you two. Twenty two, get lost! Twenty one, get in line. Thirty, you can get out of here as well! Seven. Get… IN LINE! The rest of you can leave now." He finished as five disdained people left the stadium.

"NAMES! AND POSITION!" barked the coach, turning to the remaining five with his clipboard in hand.

"Right back, Daniel Winters."

"Right Forward, Calem Walker."

"Left Forward, Alfa Snowbelle."

"Center Middle, Tony Barinas."

"Center Middle, Denver Marcus."

"Good." Replied the coach. "I'm going to assign you to two old team members in two and three. You can pick your partners. I'll assign your senior partners. You'd better like them, because I expect you to be as thick as thieves with them. Now split up." Immediately, Calem and Alfa moved over to one side.

"Okay, Lahm, Dempsey, you're with those two." He said, pointing to Calem and Alfa. Two boys walked over, around eighteen and nineteen, roughly the same age as Calem and Alfa. One had bronze hair and brown eyes, and the other had brown hair and brown eyes. "Broker, Welters, you're with the other three."

"Hey, I'm Derek Dempsey." Said the one with brown hair.

"And I'm Lucas Lahm. One second, don't you live at 13 and 14 Frost Avenue?" he asked Alfa.

"Yes, why?" replied Calem.

"Seriously? I live in 15 Frost Avenue with my three sisters." Lucas replied. "Derek has 17. Come on, let's go to my house." The boys set off through Snowbelle city. All of a sudden, something swooped down from above and hit the snow in front of Lucas's house hard enough to send it flying. Yveltal. Philip, Derek and Calem stared at it in awe. Alfa didn't waste time that. Instead he fired an Ion disc straight at Yveltal. The light cloaked it, and stayed over Yveltal for so long that Alfa began to worry. All of a sudden, the light vanished and the disc fell, bearing a black and red hue.

"Did you just...?" exclaimed Lucas.

"You just captured…..!" exclaimed Derek.

"Two legends, one champion." Said Calem with a smile.


	15. To Helhiem's Gate

**Chapter 15**

**To Helheim's Gate**

Alfa woke up to a sudden noise which he couldn't identify. He tried to clear his head and a few seconds later, he registered the noise as something falling down. He looked all around his room. Nothing had fallen here. He sat back down but his arm missed the mattress and he lost his balance, falling to the floor. He got up, deciding to just find out what had fallen down. He walked throughout the entire house, and finding nothing on the floor, he decided to look out the windows. He went to his room upstairs and looked out the window. Looking past the row of firm spruce trees planted along the edge of the street and saw one of the trees on the lower road had fallen down. There were no houses opposite his as the street was at a sort of ascent. A road inclined up, then making a full turn, came onto the level street where this house was.

Alfa went and got dressed, checking on his Pokemon. They were all asleep. He walked out to the door quietly, but just before he could open the door, there came a light knocking. Puzzled as to who it could be at six thirty in the morning, Alfa opened the door. The person on the other side was the last person he expected to see here at six thirty in the morning; Kellyn Alaric.

Alfa stepped out of the doorway as Kellyn walked in, a bag on his shoulder. Alfa examined him. He wasn't wearing his ranger uniform which meant he wasn't here for business, but his styler wasn't clipped to his belt either.

"Hi." Began Kellyn. "How's life?"

"Really. That's the best you can think of when you come at six in the morning!" Alfa replied, amused. "Life here's fine. If you read the news you'd know that I'm the Kalos champion at the moment. What I actually want to know is what brings you here at six in the morning."

"Let's sit down first if you don't mind." Kellyn replied. Alfa led him through the maze of a manor and took him out to the courtyard where the boys sat down.

"A lot's happened since you left." Kellyn began, settling in as though he were telling an hour long story. Who knew, maybe he was. "The union started to fall apart. The professor is trying to fix things up, but no one's operating at full capacity. He started to go mad with the stress of fixing the union. He's still sane, but he's working overtime and the stress is getting to him. We all tried to help him and fix the problems, but one day, I tried to convince him to take the day off and he lost it. He fired me during that outrage and exclaimed that anybody else who wanted to make him 'quit his job' could break there stylers there and then and leave. I tossed mine to Cranidos and Cranidos obliterated it. I had been packing my things to leave when the gas line above our room blew up and destroyed half the apartment. I finished packing and I left. And now I'm here. Is it okay if I stay with you for a while?"

"You don't even need to ask. You can stay in one of those two rooms." Said Alfa, gesturing towards the right and left balconies overlooking the courtyard. "Take your pick."

"Thanks. I have one more thing to tell you. Sven called me while I was on my way here. He sounded grim. Apparently, the professor isn't lucid. He's sane, but he isn't lucid. Since he can't be declared incompetent, he's still in charge of the ranger union, and he's planning to lay siege to your house. He thinks that if he attacks you, he can persuade you to come back." Kellyn finished, a grim expression on his face.

"If they think they can take me down, they have to think again." Alfa replied. "If you're staying here, you're going to have to learn how to operate the systems built in to the house. And we're going to have to work on our defenses. Are all our friends taking part in this siege?"

"Sven said that they're all going to fake a high priority mission so that they don't have to. So it'll just be the area rangers." Kellyn replied, getting up and heading for the stairs inside the house. "I'm going to leave my things in my room before we get started." Alfa nodded in reply heading up to his own room to get dressed before showing Kellyn around. Five minutes later Alfa had just finished getting ready and he met Kellyn at the door, when someone else knocked on the door. Alfa swung around and opened it, finding Calem on the other side, dressed in what Alfa guessed were his nightclothes.

"Why are you in your nightclothes?" Alfa asked, extremely confused. Instead of answering with words, Calem stepped back and pointed in the direction of his house. Alfa walked out on to the terrace and looked at the house next to his. An enormous tree had fallen and smashed through the center of the house.

"How bad is it?" he asked, overwhelmed by the amount of things happening.

"I can't live there anymore, the house has to either be repaired or sold. And selling it is much better for me due to the amount of damage caused. Luckily, though my room did collapse, most of my stuff was in my cupboard, which saved around seventy percent of it." Calem replied.

"You can stay with me." Alfa replied, his eyes straying to the wreckage again and again. His arm tensed, ready to fire an Ion Disc. He stepped out of the doorway as Calem entered the house. Gazing at the rising sun, he spotted something that disturbed him. It looked like a mechanical Pokemon… Alfa zoomed in on his S-Lens, confirming his fear. Somebody was spying on the house. Without hesitating, Alfa chose a disc and launched it directly above the mechanical Pokemon. The disc sliced through the air, whistling as it crossed over the mechanical bird, releasing Yveltal above it.

"YVELTAL; OBLIVION WING!" Alfa exclaimed his arm outstretched in the direction of the mechanical Pokemon. The dark type marvel let the wind blow it higher with its wings open like a parachute before closing them and letting loose a beam of pure energy at the mechanical impression of a Pokemon. The machine shattered into millions of different parts, a camera and transmitter landing in front of the house in the snow.

Alfa walked forward, picking up the camera and checking the workings. It was still on. It was a fragile model, surviving the crash only because of the snow it had landed in. Alfa looked into the camera.

"If you want to attack me, come fight me here and now. Tricks like this one don't work." Alfa spoke into the camera, crushing it under his shoe once he was done. He walked inside, directing Calem to the other free room after introducing him to Kellyn.

Alfa stepped into the courtyard, Latios trailing behind him. Kellyn was practicing use of the defensive systems and Calem was catching up on the sleep he had lost during the destruction of his house. Alfa sat down and picked up an apple, staring at it instead of eating it.

'So what do you intend to do if they do attack?' Latios questioned, gazing at Alfa with a half concerned, half amused expression on his streamlined face.

'If they try to take our home, I will destroy them, no matter what it takes.' Alfa replied, his mood grim. 'They can bring all of Almia if they like, but they'll still lose.'

'I wonder what has become of Almia since the fall of the rangers...' Alfa wondered.

'It's probably gone to pieces.' Latios replied.

'I'm going to create the lightning cannon.' Alfa said as he suddenly got up, placing the apple back on the counter and striding quickly and purposefully to the control room. He found Kellyn inside, with the weapon system set on virtual practice. Working quickly, Alfa shuffled through the papers on the desk until he found the blueprint he wanted, pinning it to a wall and getting his tools out.

Blaziken followed him into the room from the den and sat down next to him, watching him intently. Alfa had taken a sheet of Carbon fiber and was hammering it out mercilessly. Each blow added to the structure of the turbine he was making. Once he had curved the sheet into shape, he realized that the blowtorch next to him wasn't going to work on Carbon fiber.

"A little help please?" Alfa asked, looking at Blaziken with a bemused smile on his face. Blaziken stepped forward, setting its left wrist on fire and running it along the structure according to Alfa's instructions. After that, Alfa had Blaziken heat up on talon and carve out the cavities necessary in the structure. Hours of hard labor later, the one turbine was ready.

Alfa sat up with a start as Kellyn tapped him on the shoulder.

"You've been sitting still for too long. You need to get up and move around. Besides, its lunch time. Calem woke up and went to the kitchen to make something." He suggested as Alfa got to his feet. The two boys went to the kitchen and sat down at the table to find Calem ready for them with three bowls of mac 'n' cheese with brisket.

"That's the one thing I actually know how to cook that isn't a simple thing like an egg." He stated as he himself sat down.

"What do you put in this stuff?! It's delicious!" Kellyn exclaimed, his face lit up with delight after tasting the mac 'n' cheese.

"Family secret." Calem replied, digging into his own bowl. Kellyn's phone started buzzing as he put his fork down in his empty bowl. His expression grew grimmer every second he was staring at the screen.

"That was Sven. Hastings received your message. The battalion is on its way here. Five hours max." Kellyn remarked, turning to Alfa.

"Well it's about time they started moving their backsides! And it's high time for us to get ready for it. I'm going to go finish the lightning canon.

Five hours later….

Alfa stepped out of his room and headed straight for the courtyard.

"They're here." He stated briefly, approaching Kellyn, Calem and the mass of Pokemon there. "I didn't have time to test out the lightning canon, Kellyn, Calem, you two are going to have to test them out while commanding your Pokemon…. Try not to take any lives though, just knock people out. If you can land a hit on Hastings, don't hesitate…. We're at war with a madman here, we can't take any chances concerning him."

All of a sudden, an explosion sounded outside the house.

"It's begun." Said Kellyn grimly, heading for the control room. Alfa walked out the back door, strapping on glider wings and gauntlet outlets for the lightning cannons. He crept into the forest, relaying a series of battle tactics to Latios for the rest of his team. He ran through the forest, using paths he had devised to get out of his lane without being seen. He reached the end of his street which was an alcove of the towering trees that lined the cliff like street.

Exiting through them, he opened his glider wings and let the wind carry him high up before he applied the short burst motor to get him behind the battalion so that he was facing his house. He looked down, recognizing many of the rangers in the crowd; Barlow, Luna, Crawford, Aria, and countless others. It saddened him that he was going to have to knock out his old companions. He folded the wings back letting himself go into a freefall, letting them out again in time to catch the updraft and throw him back into the sky as he tested out the lightning gauntlets on more than a few unfortunate victims.

He saw the canon vents in the house being entered by the rangers who dared explore them, only for Calem to fry them by firing the canon through that outlet without knowledge of their presence. The battle raged on for hours, Alfa, Calem and Kellyn knocking out more than half the battalion with their Pokémon's help.

Two Hours later, in the heat of the battle…..

Alfa closed his wings and fell behind the cliff, opening them again once he was out of sight and gliding on the low currents around to the forest and making his way back to the house. He entered through the back door and went straight to the control room.

"How's everything with you guys?" Alfa asked, looking up at the live camera feed.

"We're doing great, but we haven't managed to find Hastings in this mess yet." Kellyn replied.

"Kay. Keep up the good work, I'm going to dive from the roof this time." Alfa commented, heading for the stairs to the roof. Once he was up, he crouched behind the edge, out of sight, getting ready to make a running start. His heart was pounding and he had a feeling that he was going to come up against Hastings soon. He swallowed the knot of anxiety in his throat and ran forward, opening his wings as he leaped off the edge of the roof.

"TO HELHIEM'S GATE!" He shouted as he leaped off the roof, opening his wings, Hastings in sight.

Kellyn and Calem were having the time off their lives. They had thousands of volts of electricity at their command to fight off the enemy, and they were having a good time.

"So, how about if we survive this attack, the three of us go have dinner at that new high end restaurant in Lumiose City?" Kellyn suggested as he fired against his mark, a naïve looking blond ranger with war paint on his face.

"Deal. But let's survive this first." Calem chucked.

Lightning struck the professor even as a spear cut through Alfa's heart.

"TO HELHIEM'S GATE!" was the last thing he remembered. The world went dark, then in a brilliant flash off white he found himself standing in front of golden gates, Ice standing in front of him.


End file.
